The Roanoker May/June 2022 - 32

the marijuana movement
" I thought, 'The bigger we can be and the
more people that know of our brand, the better
off we'll be in that movement to getting into
marijuana,' " Wall said.
But that movement largely ground to a halt
in the 2022 General Assembly session. Senators
continued to work along the same lines
as before. During the session, the bill lurched
wildly as senators shifted provisions that favored
different sectors of the developing hemp
and marijuana industries.
There are the companies that already hold
licenses to dispense medical marijuana in Virginia.
Farmers that previously dove into hemp
and now are considering marijuana. Hemp processors
that connected growers and retailers.
And a spectrum of businesses that aim to open
retail dispensaries.
Ultimately, the Senate passed a bill that was
killed in the House of Delegates. With no legislation
authorizing a commercial market, regulations
can't be drafted. Everything stalled.
" It's just a really, really complex issue, " said
Greg Habeeb, who heads Gentry Locke's government
and regulatory affairs team in Richmond.
" The dynamics to get there had to be
perfect, and they weren't. "
Lawmakers seemed agree on the idea that
Virginia agriculture deserves special status and
protection, Habeeb said. Beyond that, everything's
up in the air.
Lawmakers' failure to act doesn't just affect
business; it also has implications for law
enforcement, criminal justice and consumer
safety.
" Everyone is super focused on who gets to
make a buck first or next, but let's step back a
bit from that, " said JM Pedini, executive director
of Virginia NORML. " A few hundred people
will have cannabis business licenses. There
are tens of thousands of consumers in Virginia,
and this last legislative session asked them to
take a backseat while the state sorted out who
could make money on them. "
Pedini said the first step for most states has
32 MAY/JUNE 2022
been to authorize recreational sales by medical
companies, who've already invested dozens
of millions of dollars and been scrutinized by
state regulators for years.
Others disagree with that approach, including
Buffalo Hemp's Wall as well as Chelsea
Higgs Wise, co-founder and executive director
of Marijuana Justice, a nonprofit advocacy
group.
" What we're finding out is that every state
that has legalized with a limited exclusive market
for medical operators - somehow the social
equity piece has been held up, " Wise said.
" And we're finding a direct link from medical
operators to litigation that's holding us up. "
Instead, Marijuana Justice favors microbusinesses
and coops that encourage more
community buy-in - and therefore more restorative
justice. Marijuana legalization was
passed in part to relieve the effects of mass incarceration
in heavily policed neighborhoods
- which largely tend to have lower incomes
and higher percentages of Black and Latino
residents.
A state study found 88 localities in Virginia
disproportionately arrested Black individuals
for marijuana possession from 2015 to
2019. In Roanoke, Black individuals were 3.64
times more likely than whites to be arrested for
marijuana. That figure grows to 4.35 in Salem,
6.52 in Roanoke County and 9.36 in Botetourt
County. State courts were even more likely to
move forward with cases against Black than
white individuals.
The 2021 legalization law was written with
provisions to favor individuals and communities
that have been severely affected by marijuana
criminalization. Republicans view those
social equity provisions less favorably than
Democrats. The lack of legislative action this
year leaves a lot of uncertainty across the board
- but especially in those highly affected communities,
which tend to have less privacy and
space to grow, and still face more consequences
than less policed areas.
There's also the matter of adjusting the
criminal justice system to reflect legalization.
Unfortunately, that tends to fall by the wayside
amid the new focus on business opportunities.
" Not one state in the entire nation has completed
resentencing after legalization, " Wise
said.
The ongoing uncertainty over Virginia's legalization
may be resolved in the 2023 General
Assembly session. If not, expect the topic to
become an issue that fall, when Virginia votes
on all 140 seats in the General Assembly. I
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