Today, someone on YouTube posted a response to the latest episode of The Reefer Report. The comment informed me of the current laws in Virginia regarding marijuana possession. Keep in mind we are talking about possession without any sort of drug dealing or medical use. This is strictly personal possession.

First offense:
Misdemeanor with a $500 fine and 30 days in the slammer
Subsequent offenses:
Misdemeanor with a $2500 fine and ONE YEAR in the pokey
(NORML.org)

Hopefully you now understand why I had to limit the subject to simple possession.

Now get ready for some numbers…
According to the National Drug Intelligence Center’s Virginia Drug Threat Assessment, marijuana is quite popular in the commonwealth as the number one most “abused” drug in the state. In 2000, 58% of all drug-related arrests in the state were marijuana related. From the years of 1998-2001, marijuana task force operations were second only to cocaine. In the Virginia Drug Threat Assessment, the only association made with marijuana and violence is with production and sales. Since we are looking at simple possession, there is no evidence to support an issue of violence and personal possession as presented by the NDIC.

With such stiff penalties, why are Virginians willing to take the risk with possessing this plant material? Maybe the better question to ask is why the state of Virginia is continuing to create “tougher” penalties for a problem that is only a problem because the laws make it so.

If the problems with marijuana and violence are with the production and distribution (and really more about turf wars instead of the plant itself), then why not legalize and regulate? The threat assessment spends a good deal of effort explaining how the drugs are transported and distributed by gangs. What they don’t do in the report is look for solutions to the issue of violence. The attempt to incarcerate all the drug dealers in the world is a failed concept. It is time to seek another solution.

Simply put, laws are what define a person as a criminal, so if we want less crime then we need to change some laws. It is completely counter-intuitive to most people, but so are some of the best solutions. If we want a better grasp on the problems created by the fact that humans have long consumed substances in recreational and spiritual fashion, we need to start seeing things from a more realistic lens.

If the state regulated the sale of marijuana, legitimate businesses could be formed from the so-called problem of manufacturing and distributing a plant that has stayed in high demand. After all, it’s the people who are still creating a demand for this product, not the dealers, smugglers, and manufacturers. Those people are making a living off of a very profitable industry. The United States government has just been up its own puritanical butt so far that it refuses to tap into this natural resource.

Virginia’s simple possession laws are an atrocity to the validity of our judicial system. Sending an 18 year-old to jail for one year will change his/her life and the struggles forced upon that child by a poorly designed system. Whom are these laws really protecting?
 

Resources:

NDIC, Virginia Drug Threat Assessment

NORML- Marijuana laws for Virginia