Virginia senators have approved a pair of bills to legalize recreational marijuana sales and provide sentencing relief for people with prior cannabis convictions.
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee on Wednesday voted to advance the marijuana sales legislation from Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) in a 9-6 vote. Members also voted 12-TK3to approve the cannabis resentencing measure from Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D).
Both measures next head to the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee before potentially reaching the floor.
Aird told colleagues at Wednesday’s hearing that her bill “establishes a market that, once and for all, will protect consumers and prioritize health and safety, while ensuring balance to our regulatory structure that ensures legalization is aligned with public health and safety goals and avoids past mistakes embedded in alcohol laws that allow the legal substance to remain a pipeline to criminalization.”
“I know there is an interest in strictly aligning the approach that we take in this legislation to [the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority’s] enforcement structure, but in doing that too closely we do risk building a legal system that still relies on arrests, mandatory fines, mandatory minimums, jail time and felonies for low level conduct,” she said. “And
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