He calls himself an unlikely proponent — a former federal prosecutor, a former president of the Virginia Board of Medicine, in favor of legalizing marijuana?
“It’s exactly because of that experience that I understand … this is not the problem that we were once led to believe that it was,” Del. Steve Heretick said Thursday.
The Democrat, who represents Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Norfolk, is once again renewing his call to legalize marijuana in Virginia. The idea has the backing of the state’s attorney general, who said in a Daily Press op-ed in June that Virginia should “start moving toward legal and regulated adult use.”
Heretick is running unopposed in this November’s election, and said he plans to file a bill to legalize marijuana again next year. His first attempt, which died in a Courts of Justice subcommittee meeting this year, was 70 pages long and addressed issues including growing, licensing and advertising.
“Stereotypes die hard,” he said Thursday evening at a meeting with the Virginia Cannabis Industry Association in downtown Norfolk. “And I think one of the things we’ve come to understand is that marijuana has valid medical purposes. It has valid recreational purposes.”
Eleven states and Washington, D.C. have legalized small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use.
“Is Virginia ready for legalization? I don’t think so today, quite honestly,” Heretick said in an interview after the meeting. “But I do think that it’s coming, and I do think that we need to begin to have those conversations. And that’s why I put the legislation in.”
—
Heretick will also file a bill for the fourth time to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession — up to a half ounce — and instead impose civil penalties. Right now, possession of marijuana is classified as a misdemeanor which comes with up to a six-month jail sentence or a fine of up to $1,000.
Sen. Adam Ebbin and Del. Charnielle Herring, both Democrats from Fairfax, filed similar legislation this year.
If Heretick’s bill passes, Virginia would become the 27th state to eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana possession. Under decriminalization, the drug remains illegal but possessing it is no longer a crime.
Last year, marijuana arrests accounted for 59 percent of all drug arrests, according to the Virginia State Police. They’ve been the majority every year since 2008.
“It is saddling tens of thousands of Virginians with convictions and making them criminals unnecessarily,” Attorney General Mark Herring said at Thursday’s meeting.
“I’ve seen so many cases of young people’s futures unnecessarily turned upside down by that and limited, and we can do better,” he said, adding the law disproportionately affects people of color.
Heretick thinks decriminalization has a “reasonably good chance” of passing in Virginia next year if Democrats gain the majority in both chambers. All 140 seats are up for election this November, and Republicans hold a slim majority.
He said he’s had lawmakers from both parties pull him aside and tell him they wanted to vote for his bill, but they didn’t think their constituents would support it.
But a February 2018 Christopher Newport University poll showed 76% of respondents favored decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.
And the General Assembly has expanded access to medical marijuana in recent years, with five companies granted licenses by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy to operate strictly medical dispensaries.
—
It’s not just Democrats who support the idea of decreasing punishments for possession.
Last year, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, argued unsuccessfully for a measure saying first offenders charged with possession of marijuana would no longer risk jail time and would have a chance to purge their records. Norment, who is an attorney, said he’d grown concerned because of the large number of college students he sees who suffer lifelong consequences from a single conviction.
In 2018, Heretick also filed a bill to expunge the records of people with marijuana possession convictions. Herring has also called for people with possession charges to be released from jail if decriminalization passes.
Both Norfolk’s and Portsmouth’s commonwealth’s attorneys have tried to make changes in how marijuana prosecutions are handled.
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Greg Underwood said he would no longer prosecute misdemeanor marijuana appeals, but was met with resistance by several judges. In May, three Virginia Supreme Court judges ruled Underwood couldn’t routinely dismiss marijuana possession cases.
Later that month, Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales and District Public Defender Brenda Spry said they approached the General District judges in March about changing how misdemeanor marijuana cases were handled in the city in light of the “severe implications” such convictions can carry.
But in a statement, the city’s judges said all requests for dismissing marijuana possession charges would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Heretick and Herring recognize they’ll need the backing of law enforcement agencies, judges and prosecutors.
“I would ask them to keep an open mind,” Herring said of police departments. “They have important information and experience that will be expressed and they’ll have a seat at the table, and we want to hear that. We can meet our public safety goals better with a smarter cannabis policy.”
Marie Albiges, 757-247-4962, malbiges@dailypress.com
