As the rest of the country has moved toward decriminalization of marijuana, Virginia has been imposing a sharp crackdown. Arrests for weed possession shot up 76 percent from 2003 to 2014 — a stark departure from the 6.5 percent national decline during the same period — and the increase is speeding up, not slowing down.
What’s more, the focus has fallen heavier on African-Americans. Blacks used to be arrested for marijuana offenses 240 percent more often than whites; now they’re arrested 330 percent more often.
This makes little sense — especially when you can walk into any one of several hundred stores run by the state itself and buy another powerful drug that is even more dangerous. People can and do die from alcohol withdrawal. That’s not true of marijuana. Yet the state rakes in money from booze, which kills tens of thousands of people a year nationwide — and shells out tens of millions of dollars a year to punish people for using pot.
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Virginia’s political class seems ill-inclined to legalize marijuana this year, or perhaps even this century. But the state and its localities need to reconsider the harsh stance they have taken toward the drug. It is not reducing consumption or producing any other apparent benefits, but it is making life harder for citizens who get saddled with criminal records. That’s particularly true for African-Americans, who already face serious obstacles to employment and wealth creation.
No one can seem to articulate an intelligent reason for spending so much time, money and effort fighting marijuana use rather than regulating and taxing its sale, as the state does with alcohol. Until someone can, Virginians can only conclude that state and local officials are the ones acting stoned.