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Virginia’s governor has signed legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past marijuana convictions—even after lawmakers declined to adopt her proposed amendments to the legislation that would have significantly scaled back the scope of the reform.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) gave final approval to the bills, HB 26 from Rozia Henson, Jr. (D), and SB 62 from Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D), on Thursday.
Separately, lawmakers and advocates are awaiting the governor’s action on separate legislation to legalize recreational marijuana sales after her proposed amendments were similarly rejected by the House and Senate last month. The suggested changes to that legislation included delaying the start date for sales by six months, increasing taxes and instituting new criminal penalties for cannabis consumers.
The resentencing reform, meanwhile, creates a process by which people who are incarcerated or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana will receive an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.
Spanberger last month had sent lawmakers suggested amendments that would have required affected persons to proactively file petitions to get the relief instead of having courts proceed automatically. The Senate and House of Delegates, however, declined to take up the proposal, effectively rejecting it and sending the original legislation back to Spanberger’s desk.
Henson, the sponsor of the House version of the bill, had said he was willing to accept the governor’s changes even if he worried that it would mean that some people with cannabis convictions would “fall through the cracks simply because they lacked a lawyer or did not know to ask.”
The full legislature did not agree to the changes, however, and now HB 26 and SB 62 as originally passed have been enacted into law.
The relief will apply to people whose convictions or adjudications are for conduct that occurred prior to July 1, 2021, when a state law legalizing personal possession and home cultivation of marijuana went into effect. State and local corrections officials will be required to identify and notify eligible people of their rights for resentencing relief and then work with courts to schedule hearings automatically.
Henson said last month that the resentencing legislation was “built for the people still paying the price for something Virginia has since made legal.”
“If the commonwealth changed the law, it has an obligation to revisit the consequences still being borne by people convicted under the old one,” he said.
The governor’s office claimed in a press release when she proposed her amendments that they “clarify that under no circumstances would reconsideration be allowed for violent offenses that remain illegal in Virginia—from armed burglary to firearm possession to distribution of fentanyl, heroin, and other dangerous drugs.”
But Henson said that while he shares “the governor’s commitment to ensuring that violent offenders are not eligible for this relief; and that commitment is reflected in the bill itself, which already excluded individuals convicted of acts of violence under Virginia law.”
Spanberger’s release last month did not make any mention of her major actual change to the bill, which is to remove its provisions for automatic relief for people with cannabis convictions.
The governor’s amendment also proposed to remove deadlines for court hearings on resentencing relief.
Similar legislation was approved by lawmakers last session but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
Separately, Spanberger signed several other reform bills last month—including measures to protect the parental rights of marijuana consumers and allow patients to access medical cannabis in hospitals.
Cannabis policy reform advocacy organizations, meanwhile, sent a letter earlier this month urging the governor to allow the adult-use marijuana sales bill to take effect.
Tom Angell is the editor of Marijuana Moment. A 25-year veteran in the cannabis and drug law reform movement, he covers the policy, politics, science and culture of marijuana, psychedelics and other substances. He previously reported for Forbes, Marijuana.com and MassRoots, and was given the Hunter S. Thompson Media Award by NORML and has been named Journalist of the Year by Americans for Safe Access. As an activist, Tom founded the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and handled media relations, campaigns and lobbying for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
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