A proposal by a Virginian lawmaker would fund a study into the potential revenue stream of marijuana if it were sold in liquor stores. Democrat Virginia Delegate David Englin has also filed a resolution with the Governor to petition the DEA to change the scheduling of marijuana, a move that some governors have already made.
Del. Englin would like Virginia to consider the impact if Virginia’s 330 liquor stores joined the growing list of recommendations across the nation to reform the drug laws concerning the most commonly used illegal substance in the US. He would like to see Virginia bring in more money revenues for the state so they don’t have to cut funding for core services across cash-strapped Virginia. Englin says he has not and is not a marijuana user, but says that everyone knows there are respectable members of society secretly smoking marijuana and giving all that money to criminals. He would like to see that money go to the commonwealth instead.
Under the proposed resolution, eight members of the Virginia General Assembly would head a study on the practicality and feasibility of legalizing the use and sale of marijuana under strict conditions through the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The findings would be due to the legislature for consideration by the first day of the 2013 legislative session.
But even through all of the feedback that Englin has received from fellow legislators and constituents, he doesn’t actually expect the proposal to survive the House Rules Committee. He thinks that proposals like this face a steep hill to climb and he wants to take the first few steps and get this conversation going. We told you about Republican Del. Harvey Morgan a few years back introducing a decrim bill to the the house and was mocked and laughed at. The 81-year-old lawmaker has been serving the delegation since 1980. Del. Morgan has also tried unsuccessfully tried to broaden the never-used late 1970’s Virginia law that allows medical use of cannabis for cancer and glaucoma, but only with a prescription, making it an impotent law.
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