A working group appointed by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam expects that it could take up to five years to get a fully-functioning legal marijuana infrastructure established in the state.
Northam said earlier in November that he would push for recreational marijuana to be legalized, a major shift in the state. A Virginia General Assembly Join Legislative Audit and Review Commission reviewed the impacts of the state’s current policies in November and found that criminalization disproportionately affects Black Virginians.
The outline of a legalization framework from Northam’s appointed working group places a priority on creating a new state agency to oversee the industry and on collecting a lot of information on current marijuana usage in the state, according to reporting by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
