Gov. Ralph Northam: It’s Time to Decriminalize Marijuana Possession

Over the years this blog has looked at how Virginia's marijuana laws have been disproportionately enforced against blacks, especially young black males, as a means to strike blacks from the voter rolls and to condemn minorities to a bleak economic existence as a result of having criminal records.  The City of Norfolk has been a prime offender in its use of marijuana laws to criminalize blacks. Now, with Democrat control of Virginia's General Assembly for the first time in a generation, Virginia may at last be poised to end this pernicious use of marijuana laws.  Indeed, as the Virginian Pilot is reporting, Governor Ralph Northam has come out in support of decriminalization of possession for personal use.  I would add that legislation is also needed that would restore felons' voting rights once their sentence is served - something the Virginia GOP will strenuously oppose for obvious reasons.  Here are story highlights (note the Republican comment that in reality shows the Virginia GOP's desire to keep minorities from voting):

Virginians shouldn’t risk jail for having small amounts of marijuana in their pockets, or go through life with a felony record that keeps them out of many jobs for stealing a cellphone, Gov. Ralph Northam says.

He’s proposing a series of criminal law reforms he says will temper the state’s tough penalties for violating the laws with a little bit of mercy and fairness.

“Our aim is to make our criminal justice more equitable and more compassionate,” Northam told advocates for reform Friday, speaking at the Richmond offices of an agency that helps offenders get back on their feet after leaving prison.

He’s proposing legislation to raise the trigger that turns a theft into a felony from $500 to $1,000. The General Assembly raised that threshold from $200 in 2018, but only eight other states set their thresholds as low, while three more have lower triggers.

Northam also proposed decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, making it subject to a fine of $50. Currently, a first offense is a criminal misdemeanor that can land someone in jail for 30 days.

Northam said that’s an excessive penalty, adding that he’s concerned about racial disparities in arrests for marijuana possession. He said it could be a first step toward legalizing marijuana, which he said he needs to think through if the General Assembly decides to go that way.

He also wants to give the board authority to release inmates sentenced between 1995, when Virginia’s truth in sentencing law abolished parole, and 2000, when a court decision said juries had to be informed of that change before they recommended sentences. Not knowing that parole was not an option meant many juries imposed sentences on the belief that offenders would only serve a fraction of the time, he said.

Northam also wants the legislature to write into law a budget amendment passed last year that ends the automatic suspension of drivers’ licenses when people are behind with paying court costs and fines. Because the policy is in the budget, it could be dropped whenever a new budget is before the General Assembly, while writing the policy into law would put it on firmer footing.

Northam said suspending a license keeps people from working, so that they can’t pay their fines.

Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran said people still have to pay their fines and court costs, and added that the state has several other ways to make sure they do so.

House of Delegates Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, a longtime [and now former] chairman of the Criminal Justice subcommittee, said the General Assembly needs to proceed cautiously.

Mark Herring: Virginia Must begin to Decriminalize Marijuana

For over a quarter century, Virginia Republicans have used Virginia's criminal justice system to aid in its effort to make voting more difficult, if not impossible, for minorities to vote in Virginia.  Along with voter ID laws disingenuously touted as being needed to prevent non-existent voter fraud, the agenda has been to minimize the minority vote.  Nowhere has this been more true than in the context of Virginia's marijuana laws that are disproportionately enforced against black Virginians who make up 20% of the population, but who are subject to 46-50% of marijuana arrests and convictions.  It's an insidious agenda and morally reprehensible, but such is the nature of today's Republican Party, both in Virginia and in Washington, D.C.  A growing number of Virginians want these laws changed.  Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has an op-ed in the Daily Press that looks at this continuing shame on Virginia that needs to be rectified.  Here are column excerpts:

Virginia’s policy of criminalizing minor marijuana possession is not working. It is needlessly creating criminals and burdening Virginians with convictions. The human and social costs are enormous, in addition to the millions of dollars it costs Virginia taxpayers. And the negative consequences of the current approach fall disproportionately on African Americans and people of color.

That is why Virginia should decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, address past convictions and start moving toward legal and regulated adult use.

Overall arrests for marijuana possession have increased by about 115%, from around 13,000 in 2003 to nearly 28,000 in 2017. The number of first-time marijuana convictions in Virginia has also risen dramatically, from 6,500 in 2008 to 10,000 in 2017.

Even if a Virginian avoids jail time for marijuana possession, they can still be stuck with a criminal record, lose their job, student aid, certain public benefits including housing assistance, and it can even affect custody rights.

This punitive approach costs Virginia taxpayers an estimated $81 million every year, in addition to the staggering human and social costs. And it cannot be ignored that the burden of the current system falls disproportionately on African Americans and people of color.

The Virginia Crime Commission found that African Americans comprised 46% of all first offense possession arrests from 2007 to 2016, despite comprising just 20% of Virginia’s population and despite studies consistently showing that marijuana usage rates are comparable between African Americans and white Americans.

A study by the Daily Press similarly found that African Americans received half of all charges of first-time marijuana possession in Virginia and that African Americans are more likely to be convicted of marijuana charges and sentenced to jail.

So what does a more rational, just, and equitable cannabis policy look like in Virginia? It’s a question that will require thought, consideration, and input from a wide range of stakeholders, but the time is right to begin working toward legal and regulated adult use.

That process should begin as soon as possible with decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of marijuana and taking action to release from jail, pardon and expunge the records of those whose convictions would not have occurred under more rational standards.

[W]e can’t avoid the conversation any longer, especially when our current system continues to saddle Virginians with convictions and even jail time, and black Virginians at a strikingly disproportionate rate. It is time for Virginia to embrace a better, smarter, and fairer approach to cannabis.

Marijuana reform will be yet another much needed legislative issue that can move forward if Democrats win control of the General Assembly in November, 2019.  So much reform is needed in so many areas of Virginia's laws that will only happen when the GOP is sent into a minority position (hopefully, permanently). 

Norfolk Judges By Default Support Disproportionate Prosecution of Blacks

Lobby of Norfolk Court House.

For many years Virginia's arcane marijuana laws have been used - by design, in my view to subjugate and disenfranchise blacks - to disproportionately criminalize black citizens.  This is an issue I have written about in the past and I have previously noted that City of Norfolk has been a prime offender in Virginia when it comes to disproportionately targeting blacks.  Indeed, the most recent statistics are most damning: 81 percent marijuana arrests were black in a city with a population that is 47 percent white and 42 percent black. The continuation of this injustice was recently re-enforced by the Republican controlled Virginia General Assembly which killed legislation that would have overhauled Virginia's horrible marijuana laws and decriminalized simple possession offences.  To address this unconscionable situation, Norfolk's Commonwealth Attorney, Greg Underwood, has indicated that he will not prosecute (would that he could convince the Norfolk Police Department from targeting blacks).  Unfortunately Underwood has hit a brick fall in the form of Norfolk's judges who have stated that they will continue to try marijuana summons even if the Commonwealth Attorney refuses to prosecute them.  Underwood's hopefully work around?  He has petitioned the Virginia Supreme Court - which has a terrible track record of being on the wrong side of history and supporting racial discrimination - asking that it affirm his prosecutorial discretion. A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at the stand off.  The judges' action is unfortunate.  The continued targeting of blacks by the Norfolk Police Department is down right reprehensible. Here are excerpts:

The city’s chief prosecutor said he will ask the state Supreme Court to force local judges into dismissing misdemeanor marijuana cases, effectively de-criminalizing the drug in Norfolk.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Greg Underwood on Friday sent a letter to the chief judge of the city’s highest court, letting him and the seven other Circuit Court judges know that Underwood would appeal their collective decision to deny motions prosecutors have made over the past two months to abandon those cases.

Two months ago, Underwood announced he would undertake several efforts to achieve what he called criminal justice reform, including no longer prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana appeals.

But since then, at least four judges have denied prosecutors’ requests to dismiss marijuana charges. The tug-of-war adds to the confusion about whether it’s OK to have a small amount of weed in the city. Norfolk police have said they will continue to cite people for misdemeanor marijuana possession as they’ve always done. Circuit Court judges appear determined to make sure offenders are tried, even if the commonwealth’s attorney refuses to prosecute them.

Prosecuting people for having marijuana disproportionately hurts black people and does little to protect public safety, Underwood has said.

In 2016 and 2017, more than 1,560 people in Norfolk were charged with first- or second-offense marijuana possession, prosecutor Ramin Fatehi said during a hearing last month. Of them, 81 percent were black in a city that’s 47 percent white and 42 percent black.

This “breeds a reluctance on the part of African Americans, particular young African American men, to trust or cooperate with the justice system,” according to a Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office memo announcing the policy changes

“Such prosecution also encourages the perception that the justice system is not focusing its attention on the legitimately dangerous crimes that regrettably are concentrated in these same communities.”

The judge, Hall, admitted Fatehi made an “extremely compelling case” with his statistics on racial disparities, but said he should pitch it to lawmakers in Richmond.

“I believe this is an attempt to usurp the power of the state legislature,” Hall said. “This is a decision that must be made by the General Assembly, not by the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.”

But circumventing the commonwealth’s attorney’s role in the long term would keep marijuana possession cases alive in Norfolk, thwarting Underwood’s criminal justice reform.

People Over 50 Are the Fastest-Growing Group of Cannabis Users

Illustration: George Wylesol for the Guardian.

The push to decriminalize marijuana and expand its medical uses is sweeping the country - even in Virginia.  I support decriminalization since, having been a teen in the 1960's, I am no stranger to marijuana and, in my view, the claim that it is a "gateway drug" is bullshit (pardon my "French"). If someone is trying to lose themselves in drugs, the real solution is decent mental health care that addresses the underlying issues.  Moreover, in my experience, the marijuana laws (especially in Virginia) seem to be aimed at criminalizing blacks with a goal of disenfranchising them.  Hence why the Virginia Republican Party is killing decriminalization efforts in this year's session of the Virginia General Assembly. With the Virginia GOP not being able to win a statewide election in a decade, the desperation to minimize "those people" on the voter rolls has reached new levels of desperation. As a piece in The Guardian indirectly notes, however, the GOP may be about to hit a brick fall in its efforts to retain this tool for criminalizing blacks.  The fastest growing cohort of marijuana users is the older 50 crowd, a key GOP demographic.  Here are article highlights (note the drop in opioid usage where marijuana has been decriminalized): 

As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age.

Why are more seniors getting high? It might make more sense to ask: “Why not?” As adults reach retirement, they age out of drug tests and have far more time on their hands. Some feel liberated to abandon long-held proprieties.

Elegant vape pens and other attractive, discreet products have helped de stigmatize the drug among older Americans. “Legalization seems to make non-users seem a little less scared of it, and perhaps less judgmental,” says Jo, a 56-year-old cannabis user who preferred not to use her real name.

The seniors using cannabis today aren’t your parents’ grandparents. The generation that camped out at Woodstock is now in its seventies. They’ve been around grass long enough to realize it’s not going to kill them, and are more open to the possibility it will come with health benefits.

Seniors’ affinity for weed is beginning to ripple across the US healthcare system. A 2016 study found that in states with access to medical marijuana, those using Medicare part D – a benefit primarily for seniors – received fewer prescriptions for other drugs to treat depression, anxiety, pain, and other chronic issues.

[P]roven or not, a number of seniors evidently prefer it to the medications they would otherwise be taking. A study published last year in in the Journal of the American Medical Association found opioid prescriptions for Medicare part D recipients dropped 14% after a state legalized medical marijuana – a hopeful sign amid the opioids crisis.

While some doctors have expressed concerns about seniors self-medicating with weed, virtually everyone agrees the public health consequences of opioids are far worse. And the most serious health concerns associated with marijuana, such as impaired brain development, tend to affect younger people.

For the industry, seniors’ newfound interest in cannabis is a business opportunity. The Colorado edibles company Wana Brands, among many others, sells cannabis products reminiscent of medicines familiar to seniors. Wana sells extended release capsules as well as products with different ratios of THC and CBD, which intoxicate users to different degrees and can have a variety of effects on ailments.

For someone who hasn’t seen a joint in 40 years, the modern dispensary can be a dizzying experience replete with dozens of products – topicals (lotions), tinctures, sprays – all promising to help you feel better, but also to get you stoned. Whether or not marijuana helps seniors to alleviate their conditions, many may enjoy a sense of control over their own wellbeing. Meanwhile, dispensaries in California and elsewhere cater to older clientele with discounts and shuttle busses.

It hasn’t escaped the pharmaceutical industry that marijuana could soon be seen as a viable replacement for many of its products. Perhaps someday soon it will be normal for seniors to pass their last decades in a cannabis-induced haze.

For those who support decriminalization, there's an easy step to take: vote Democrat in every race possible in November 2019 and flip control of the General Assembly from the GOP. 

Will the Virginia GOP Kill Marijuana Decriminalization Again in 2019?

More and more states are reforming their marijuana laws to allow medical marijuana, decriminalizing simple possession and/or reducing penalties.  Virginia has lagged behind this changing reality largely thanks to Virginia Republicans.  Why the resistance?  Actually, it is quite simple.  For years Virginia Republicans have sought to disenfranchise as many minority voters as possible be it under the smoke screen of preventing non-existent voter fraud, using Virginia's draconian drug laws to saddle minority voters with felony convictions that deprive them of the right to vote, or other disingenuous lies and ruses. As note, a significant part of this GOP agenda has been the disproportionate arrest of blacks for marijuana possession.   Among the worse offenders in this unconscionable agenda has been the City of Norfolk where blacks were far more likely to suffer arrest and conviction than whites.  Now, the City of Norfolk has changed its position and is calling for the decriminalization of simple possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.  Polls indicate that a majority of Virginians want decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.  However, the goal of the Virginia GOP ceased to be furthering the wishes of a majority of the population many years ago.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at what may transpire in the 2019 session of the Virginia General Assembly.  Here are highlights:

When it comes to marijuana, Virginia has lagged behind many states where the drug has been decriminalized or legalized for recreational use.

With lawmakers approving an expansion of the state's medical marijuana program in 2018, supporters of decriminalization are hoping that momentum will continue in 2019. But Virginia Republicans don't appear willing to support decriminalization. 

As the General Assembly gears up for a new legislative session starting Jan. 9, Democratic state Sen. Adam Ebbin has submitted a bill to decriminalize simple marijuana possession — defined as ½ ounce or less — and provide a maximum civil penalty of $50 for a first violation. The current law carries a jail sentence of up to 30 days and a maximum $500 fine for a first offense.

"Will Virginia eventually decriminalize personal possession of marijuana? Yes. Will it be in 2019? That's very unlikely," said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Legislation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana has been introduced in Virginia for years, but has always died in committee. Pedini said the House and Senate Courts of Justice committees are made up largely of Republicans — some with law enforcement backgrounds — making it difficult to build support for decriminalization or legalization.

Ebbin, however, said a criminal charge for marijuana possession can have lasting ramifications, including negative impacts on job opportunities and child custody cases. He said he hopes his bill can at least gain some support, if it is not passed outright.

"The lobby for marijuana reform is getting larger and larger, particularly for Virginia families with members who have been impacted by our current marijuana penalties," Ebbin said.

We have other states that have decriminalized and the sky has not fallen," he said.  Public opinion polls show the majority of Virginians support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana and making it punishable by fines rather than jail.

One city in Virginia has also given its seal of approval. The Norfolk City Council endorsed decriminalization in its 2019 legislative agenda.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says 23 states have decriminalized or legalized marijuana, while 33 states have passed laws allowing medical cannabis programs.

In Virginia, five companies are expected to open the state's first medical cannabis dispensaries in 2019. 

Legislation passed in 2018 allows in-state production and sales of cannabis oils to patients with certificates from their doctors. The initial legislation passed in 2016 called for cannabis oils to be available only for people with intractable epilepsy.

It is now 2019 and all responsible Virginian need to begin working now to (i) get progressive legislation passed during the coming legislative session, and (ii) send Republicans into a permanent minority status in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates in November, 2019.

Racial Justice and Legal Pot Collide in Congress

For decades now, America's marijuana laws have been used by the old white Republican establishment to disproportionately criminalize blacks and, perhaps most importantly, take away their voting rights should they receive felony convictions.  Virginia has a truly ugly history of this practice with Norfolk being among the worse cities for utilizing the practice.  The push for decriminalizing marijuana and criminal justice reform go hand in hand in part and pressure is growing at both the state and federal level for reform that will cease the needless - albeit in my view, deliberate - criminalization of so many which has also made securing a good job almost impossible.  A number of states have legalized recreational use of marijuana and a whole new industry is growing, yet a road block remains at the federal level where Republican intransigence to reform has been the norm as exhibited by Jeff Sessions' (a many with a long racist resume) move to more forcefully prosecute marijuana offenders.  Now, as the momentum for legalization grows and as even some conservatives see marijuana as a new crop that can bring economic prosperity, a collision course has developed in Congress.  A lengthy piece in Politico looks at the phenomenon.  Here are article excerpts:

Congressman James Comer stood in front of a local hemp harvest stacked shin-deep for hundreds of feet in every direction, . . . .Little yellow butterflies flitted across the surface of the crop that filled the once-vacant warehouse with the comforting smell of damp grass clippings.

It was the middle of October, and aromatic plants represented the first harvest for Vertical, a California company that has already become a serious contender in the rapidly expanding legal cannabis industry. Comer, who just won reelection to Congress with 69 percent of the vote, has promoted hemp, the non-psychoactive sister plant to marijuana, as a jobs-creating crop to replace the state’s vanished tobacco industry. Hemp grown for CBD, a medicinal oil used for complaints from arthritis to epilepsy, fetches as much as $8,000 per acre, compared with less than $600 for the same amount of corn. This processing facility, Comer said, will create 125 jobs when Vertical has it fully operational, a not insignificant boost in a town of 2,600 people.

Vertical’s future, as well as the state’s infant hemp industry as a whole, rests in large part with the passage of the vast farm bill that Congress is expected to finish in the lame-duck session. Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the bill includes an amendment that would permanently remove hemp from the list of federally banned drugs like heroin and cocaine, freeing hemp from the crippling legal stigma that has made it economically unviable for the past four decades. But that amendment also includes a little-noticed ban on people convicted of drug felonies from participating in the soon-to-be-federally-legal hemp industry.

[T]he exception has angered a broad and bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, hemp industry insiders and religious groups who see it as a continuing punishment of minorities who were targeted disproportionately during the war on drugs and now are being denied the chance to profit economically from a product that promises to make millions of dollars for mostly white investors on Wall Street.

Legalization has made steady progress at the state level since California first approved medical marijuana in 1996. As of election night, 33 states now allow medical marijuana, and 10 states plus the District of Columbia allow fully recreational use. But at the federal level, a sizable headwind remains.

[L]awmakers like McConnell, who have discovered the economic benefits of relaxing prohibitions on products such as hemp, have nevertheless quietly found ways, like the farm bill felon ban, to satisfy the demands of their anti-legalization constituents, to the chagrin of pro-cannabis lawmakers and activists. After POLITICO Magazine reported on the drug-crime felon ban in August, three senators—Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)—wrote to Senate leadership demanding the removal of the ban, citing its “disparate impact on minorities,” among other concerns.

“I think there’s a growing recognition of the hypocrisy and unfairness of our nation’s drug laws, when hundreds of thousands of Americans are behind bars for something that is now legal in nine states and something that two of the last three Presidents have admitted to doing,” Booker told POLITICO Magazine. “If we truly want to be a just and fair nation, marijuana legalization must be accompanied by record expungement and a focus on restorative justice.”

The fairness problems inherent in the felon ban are evident even in a predominantly white community like Cadiz. Vertical’s CEO is himself a felon. Todd Kaplan pleaded guilty in 2010 to tax evasion, but because his crime was not drug-related, he won’t be barred from participating in the hemp business. But for many men in rural Kentucky, where illegal marijuana was a staple crop, the lifetime ban included in the proposed farm bill means they’re shut out of a growing industry in which they have have actual job skills.

When I asked Comer about the felon ban at the ribbon-cutting for Vertical's hemp-processing plant in Cadiz, he said it was not something he endorsed. “I would not have added the language preventing anyone with a prior minor drug-felony conviction from being able to produce hemp. I support the basis for criminal justice reform as it pertains to the sheer quantity of senseless petty drug sentences.”

Comer, who approves of the House's plan to force work requirements on recipients of the food stamps program known as SNAP, said he understands a primary reason able-bodied adults aren't participating in the workforce is because of their criminal records. “I’m sure the language was added to appease certain senators,” Comer told me. “But it really goes against the direction our country is headed with respect to criminal justice reform related to minor drug offenses.” But when I asked whether he will vote for the farm bill in spite of the felon ban he professes to dislike, Comer didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

This once-radical notion that felons ought to gain priority for entry into a newly legal industry—instead of being shut out—has quietly gained bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, albeit not among Republican leadership.

In the House, this mounting opposition to the continuing punishment of felons first cropped up in September, when the Judiciary Committee passed its first pro-marijuana bill. It would expand access to scientific study of the cannabis plant, a notion agreed upon by marijuana’s supporters and detractors alike. However, Democrats almost killed the bill because it included language that barred felons (and even people convicted of misdemeanors) from receiving licenses to produce the marijuana. Felon bans are commonplace in legal marijuana programs. Every state has some version of it, but most of them have a five- or 10-year limit. But the felon bans in both the Senate’s farm bill and the House’s marijuana research bill are lifetime bans, and the House bill includes misdemeanors, too.

In the Senate, the movement to protect the legal marijuana trade has taken the form of the proposed bipartisan Gardner-Warren STATES Act, which would maintain the status quo of federal non-interference in state-legal programs that was upended when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions repealed the Cole Memo, an Obama-era document that outlined a hands-off approach to state-legal programs. Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act would adopt California-style principles and apply them federally, going far beyond the STATES Act, removing marijuana from Schedule I (defined as having no medical value and a high risk of abuse) and eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana. But unlike other pro-marijuana bills, it would also deny federal law-enforcement grants to states that don’t legalize marijuana; direct federal courts to expunge marijuana convictions; and establish a grant-making fund through the Department of Housing and Urban Development for communities most affected by the war on drugs.

Booker’s bill has become popular among Senate Democrats. Ron Wyden, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Merkley and Elizabeth Warren have signed on as co-sponsors—a list that looks a lot like a lineup of presumed candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

“For too long, the federal government has propped up failed and outdated drug policies that destroy lives,” Wyden told POLITICO Magazine. “The war on drugs is deeply rooted in racism. . . . . People across America understand and want change. Now, Congress must act.”

Recent polling shows that Americans agree with Wyden—to a point. There is a widespread acceptance of legalizing marijuana. Gallup has been tracking this number since 1969, when only 12 percent of Americans believed in legalizing it; in October, Gallup put the number at 66 percent, the highest ever number recorded. Pew says it is 62 percent, also its highest number ever. But there is far less acceptance of the idea that the war on drugs has had an adverse impact on poorer, minority communities, . . .

While voters might doubt who has suffered because of laws against marijuana, there should be little doubt about who is benefiting from its legalization. In 2017, the North American marijuana industry was valued at $9.2 billion, and it is expected to reach $47.3 billion by 2027, according to Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics. The excitement around marijuana investment is so high that even John Boehner, who as speaker of the House blocked the District of Columbia from implementing its legal marijuana program, has recently joined the board of Acreage Holdings, one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis operators in America.

Now that Democrats have won control of the House, a co-founder of the Cannabis Caucus, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), is poised to implement his blueprint for how the House under Democratic leadership would legalize marijuana at the federal level. Racial justice is front-and-center in that plan. The memo he sent to Democratic leadership reads in part, “committees should start marking up bills in their jurisdiction that would responsibly narrow the marijuana policy gap—the gap between federal and state marijuana laws—before the end of the year. These policy issues … should include: Restorative justice measures that address the racial injustices that resulted from the unequal application of federal marijuana laws.” 

 I find it disgusting that no matter the policy issue, racism and harming minorities remains a bedrock of the Republican Party. 

Statistics: Blacks Treated More Harshly Than Whites Under Virginia's Marijuana Laws

From the end of Reconstruction onward through the Jim Crow period and then to Massive Resistance, Virginia lead the South in devising ways to disenfranchise black voters and/or subjugate blacks to an inferior status. Virginia's current marijuana laws are a continuation of that legacy which involves two steps: first, enact draconian marijuana laws and second, disproportionately target blacks for arrest and prosecution.   Under § 18.2-250.1, Code of Virginia, possession of marijuana is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $500 for the first offense and up to one year in jail and a fine up to $2,500 for subsequent offenses.  Under § 18.2-248.1, the delivery or sale of one-half ounce of marijuana or less is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine up to $2,500. For greater than one-half ounce, the penalties increase to a possible 1 - 10 years in prison and a fine up to $2,500. Add to this the disproportionate prosecution of blacks for marijuana offenses and one discovers a vehicle to accomplish the voter disenfranchisement so loved by Republicans, including those in the Virginia General Assembly.  Inroads have been made in legalizing medical marijuana, but much reform and decriminalization for recreational use is needed. A piece in the Daily Press looks at the damning statistics on what happens to black Virginians.  Here are excerpts:

Whites charged with marijuana possession in Virginia are more likely to get a second chance, while blacks are far more likely to spend time behind bars, a Daily Press review of court data found.

And, while only about one in five Virginians is African-American, half of those charged with a first offense of marijuana possession are black, the review found.

The data show the pattern holds for all marijuana charges, for first offenders and for first offenders who were not charged with any other offense when arrested. 

Health surveys suggest blacks and whites are about equally likely to use marijuana. But, in Newport News and Hampton, where U.S. Census figures show just under half the residents are black, African-Americans are defendants in more than three-quarters of first-offense marijuana cases.

“This is something I kind of knew, I felt it in my gut, but we never had the numbers,” said a shocked Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, who has worked as a prosecutor for a decade and has been thinking Virginia might need its first update in four decades of its marijuana possession laws.

The Daily Press analysis of district court case records found 49 percent of all first-offense marijuana charges statewide are filed against African-Americans, compared to 47 percent against whites. The percentages are almost exactly the same when those first-offenders have no other charges, which occurs a bit less than half the time.

The disparities are sharper on the Peninsula. In Newport News, 75 percent of charges are filed against blacks; in Hampton, the figure is 80 percent.

The paper reviewed nearly 29,500 marijuana cases from 2017 arrests, matching them against a database of more than 200,000 earlier cases to sort out individuals charged with possession for the first time, and a database of more than 1.8 million other district court cases from 2017 to find those who had been charged only with marijuana possession.

The review found:

*Once in court, blacks are slightly more likely to be found guilty, but are significantly more likely to go to jail. Only about one out of 14 convictions for a first-offense marijuana possession ends up with jail time; but of those that do, 65 percent are black. 

“These figures are staggering,” said Bill Farrar, director of public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. . . . Farrar said, “there is no reason to keep possession on the books as a criminal charge except as way to punish a particular group of people … this is a major racial justice, criminal justice and mass incarceration issue.”
 “It was meant to be an easy conviction, especially after the General Assembly dropped the requirement for a crime lab analysis of seized marijuana in possession cases — the field analysis is sufficient to prove a substance is marijuana,” he said. In Hampton Roads’ urban cities, four out of five charges for a first offense of marijuana possession making it to court were filed against African-Americans. In suburban communities, that figure was just under two-thirds. In Newport News, the figure was three out of four. In rural communities, about half of cases going to court were filed against blacks. In the Williamsburg/James City County General District Court, about half the cases of first-offense marijuana possession were filed against blacks. Once in court, judges found blacks guilty in seven of 10 cases, whites in four of 10. Four out of 10 blacks found guilty spend time behind bars, while two out of 10 whites did.

And, of course, once has a criminal record on their record, it becomes much more difficult to find a decent job setting the stage for marijuana law loving Republicans to whine about blacks not in the work force and being freeloaders.  If Virginia wants to escape some of the worse elements of its past, one step is to decriminalize recreational marijuana.