Virginia marijuana policy wastes money

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April 24, 11:44 AMArlington Law and Politics ExaminerChristopher Leibig

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The global financial crisis has recently motivated many states to reconsider the costs of prosecuting petty drug offenders. Not surprisingly, even afr the years of talk about prevention, punishment, deterrence, and public health, it comes down to the money. Western states, already more skeptical of the laws that incarcerate so many non-violent Americans, also better understand that US drug policy is the root cause of the bloody drug wars near the Mexican border. But while California’s legislature debates Assembly Bill 390, which would legalize possession of marijuana and tax its production and sale, Virginia marijuana defendants still clog our General District Courts, trudging through Virginia’s yawning process to register as criminals. Virginia, perhaps for good reason, is no California. Criminal treatment of drug users may be a moral priority we will pay to keep. Okay. But we should at least revisit the parts of drug policy that, if not exactly draconian, are just silly. Driver’s license suspensions for possession of marijuana are one of many examples.

Aside from potential jail time, every Virginia defendant convicted of possession of marijuana faces a mandatory six month driver’s license suspension – even when the offense has absolutely nothing to do with a car. Courts may allow these criminals to drive to work or to school, but the law forbids most all driving, a punishment which affects the spouses and children of the offenders as much as anyone else.

The cost of the license suspensions to the Commonwealth exceeds that required to regulate them, an endeavor which itself expends the man-hours of court clerks, DMV employees, drug counselors, judges, police officers, lawyers, and prosecutors. Many defendants, more than willing to admit guilt, posture to challenge their cases just to avoid the debilitating license suspension. This requires the government to chemically test alleged scraps of marijuana at an off-site lab, subpoena more witnesses to court, and spend money to try the cases.

Minds certainly differ in Virginia about who should be labeled a criminal. But who believes our trained police force should spend valuable time driving dime bags of marijuana to the state lab for testing? Or that crime labs should devote substantial effort to forensically analyzing joints? In Virginia, we like our criminal laws, but we also like our responsible budgets. We don’t want to be California, but we have often tried to be smart.

(Photos - Upper right, states with some form of non- medical marijuana decriminalization in green. (Does not include federal law) Lower left - A crowd supports California marijuana legalization in San Francisco on April 20, 2009. (AP/Jeff Chui).

See marijuana laws in all 50 states at norml.org/index.cfm; Virginia law for license suspension at leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe

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