{"id":180640,"date":"2021-02-28T11:31:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T16:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=180640"},"modified":"2021-02-28T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T16:31:09","slug":"virginia-is-for-stoners-commonwealth-becomes-16th-state-to-legalize-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-is-for-stoners-commonwealth-becomes-16th-state-to-legalize-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Is For Stoners: Commonwealth Becomes 16th State To Legalize Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvirginia-is-for-stoners-commonwealth-becomes-16th-state-to-legalize-marijuana%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=180640&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/weeed-2.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Virginia Legislature on Saturday voted to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, becoming the first state in the Old South to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The House of Delegates voted 48-43 to pass the bill and the Senate approved it in a 20-19 vote. No Republicans in either chamber voted for the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia joins 15 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing cannabis. The bill now goes to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who supports legalization. Only two other states \u2014 Illinois and Vermont \u2014 have passed legislation to legalize, tax, and regulate recreational marijuana through the legislature, Politico <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/02\/27\/virginia-legalizes-marijuana-471840\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But stoners will have to wait a bit \u2014 legalization won\u2019t take effect until Jan 1, 2024. After that, state residents can possess up to one ounce of cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bill sets a 21 percent excise tax on marijuana and allows municipalities to add an additional 3 percent tax on retailers on top of existing sales taxes. Marijuana tax revenues would be used to fund pre-K education, substance use disorder treatment programs and other public health initiatives,\u201d Politico reported. \u201cA portion of revenues would also go toward a Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, which would provide resources such as scholarships and workforce development for communities disproportionately impacted by drug enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work to get here, but I would say that we\u2019re on the path to an equitable law allowing responsible adults to use cannabis,\u201d said Sen. Adam Ebbin, the chief sponsor of the Senate bill, <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/virginia\/2021\/02\/virginia-lawmakers-down-to-the-wire-on-key-marijuana-bill\/\">according<\/a> to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>House Majority Leader Charniele Herring said the legislation is a \u201cjustice bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis moves us in a \u2026 direction to strike down and to address those institutional barriers, and over-policing, over-arrests, over-convictions of African Americans who do not use marijuana at a higher rate than our white counterparts, but we seem to get the brunt of criminal convictions,\u201d Herring said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral Democrats said they hoped Northam would send the legislation back to them with amendments, including speeding up the date for legalization,\u201d said the AP.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIf we have already made the decision that simple possession should be repealed, we could have done that today and ended the disproportionate fines on communities of color,\u201d said Sen. Jennifer McClellan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s be absolutely clear \u2014 this bill is not legalization, and there are a lot of steps between here and legalization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Northam\u2019s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said the governor \u201clooks forward to continuing to improve this legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The bill calls for dedicating 30% of marijuana tax revenue to a \u201cCannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund.\u201d That money would be used \u201cto help communities that have been historically over-policed for marijuana crimes, with funds going toward scholarships, workforce development and job placement services, and low- or no-interest loans for qualified cannabis businesses,\u201d said the AP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVirginians who have a marijuana-related conviction, have family members with a conviction, or live in an area that is economically distressed could qualify as social equity applicants who would get preference for licenses to get into the marijuana marketplace as cultivators, wholesalers, processors and retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Virginia Legislature on Saturday voted to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, becoming the first state in the Old South to do so. The House of Delegates voted 48-43 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274389,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/weeed-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Virginia Is For Stoners: Commonwealth Becomes 16th State To Legalize Marijuana","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/weeed-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Virginia Is For Stoners: Commonwealth Becomes 16th State To Legalize Marijuana","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}