The Virginia Senate voted Thursday to allow oils derived from marijuana plants as treatments for 13 new diseases and conditions, including cancer.
Senator Jill Vogel’s Senate Bill 1298 cleared the state Senate 38-2. Sen. Vogel, R-Winchester, has said there is clinical or anecdotal evidence that the oil helps in each case. The Bill would not legalize the use of the oil, but instead provide an “affirmative defense” for people in possession of it. The measure heads to the House where it may be more scrutinized by what has traditionally been the more conservative chamber on drug laws.
In an online post published Monday, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam promoted decriminalizing marijuana possession.
“One of the best ways to do this is to decriminalize marijuana. African Americans are 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in Virginia. The Commonwealth spends more than $67 million on marijuana enforcement—money that could be better spent on rehabilitation…[as a doctor] increasingly convinced by the data showing potential health benefits of marijuana, such as pain relief, drug-resistant epilepsy, and treatment for PTSD.”
Larry says
No vote here ever.
Eifer Mann says
Its amazing that very few people ever talk about WHY pot was criminalized. It was criminalized because it competed with cotton and the old southern plantations that grew cotton started a campaign to smear and vilify it. Anyway after all these years and “MILLIONS” of alcohol related deaths later and NOT 1 marijuana caused death except the kid at the university a few yrs ago that ate some marijuana edibles and jumped to his death which made no sense but other than that in all of history not one recorded death. Alcohol riddles the body with many diseases liver being the leading. You loose all motor skills when drunk and you loose NONE smoking marijuana. My point is simply WTF! Who can sit with a straight face and say people should go to JAIL for smoking pot and those who smoke deadly tobacco well they chose the RIGHT evil. Its selective nanny state BS. Gateway drug? NO absolutely not unless your willing to say the same about alcohol because ALCOHOL FKS YOU UP WAY MORE THAN POT. ALL THE STEREO TYPES ABOUT POT WERE MANUFACTURED. Don’t listen to me I did a report in school on this 38 yrs ago. Marijuana and alcohol are intoxicants on the same level and if you wanna nit pick its alcohol that is way more intoxicating and addictive. Marijuana is not addictive at all other than daily routine addiction. I started smoking at 12 I am now 53. I smoked almost the whole 41 yrs and I am in excellent shape mind and body. All the crew I grew up with still smoke for the most part and they have also not advanced into other drugs(not that pot is a drug unless alcohol is) but even more these people all hold professional jobs. So I will end by saying this; pot has been a scapegoat to steer and harvest profits from the legal controlled dealers ie the state. All those people who have run over others drunk, wrecked and killed themselves, all those family horror stories and NOT 1 about or from marijuana. You got to be one DMF’R to go along with what they have done regarding pot. A nanny state is not a free state and I don’t believe anyone in possession of cannabis can actually do any harm to another person such as fireworks or guns or AMMO! oh right you just go purchase bullets like chewing gum. Thats all I got to say except that anyone who drinks alcohol and says marijuana should be illegal, that person should be punched in the face(kidding) that person is a hypocrite at the highest level. Alcohol kills, marijuana in recorded history not one death.
Stuart Bell says
HEAR! HEAR!!!!
I interviewed with the Chief of Police and his Yes-Man (50 years of combined law enforcement experience) as high as a ‘Georgia Pine’ for 2 hours. They hired me. I was then shuttled out to islands, every day, by numerous police officers as high as a ‘Supreme Court Justice’. I collected tolls for eight hours grinning like a ‘Cheshire Cat’. I towed broken down tractor-trailers ‘stoned to the bone’………They never knew.