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A Senate committee on Wednesday grappled with hammering out several enforcement mechanisms for legislation that would create a legal marketplace for adult-use cannabis in Virginia.
Members of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee also faced pushback from both marijuana advocacy groups and opponents when they rewrote the code to align the penalties for the unlicensed sale of cannabis products with those that apply to alcohol.
“I really wanted to support this bill today, but you are not going to get support from me on mandatory minimums, so I really urge you all to treat marijuana differently than alcohol,” said Kalia Harris, executive director of the Virginia Student Power Network, one of the groups among a coalition of civil rights organizations that has been driving the effort to legalize cannabis in the commonwealth.
“We can legislate and create here together in a way that treats marijuana with the way it’s been enforced differently than alcohol, so let’s make sure when we are creating new laws that we are not just going back and slap it on alcohol crimes,” Harris said.