By Steve Elliott
Hemp News
A bill that would decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana has been introduced by Virginia state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) for the upcoming General Assembly session.
Ebbin said there have been unsuccessful decrim bills in the Virginia House of Delegates in the past, but that this is the first bill he's aware of which has originated in the Virginia Senate, reports Frank Green at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"It would decriminalize simple possession of an ounce or less, but not decriminalize it to the extent recently done in Colorado and Washington state," Ebbin said of the legalization measures approved by voters in those states. (Oddly, he didn't mention Alaska and Oregon, where, along with the District of Columbia, voters also approved legalization last month.)
"I had requests to do it for a number of years, and I decided this year to go ahead," Ebbin said. "There's about 25 million Americans who smoked marijuana in the past year, and our public policy should start to reflect reality and not deny it."
