Virginia Democrats’ Reckless Budget Bill
By Jason Miyares
STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR SPANBERGER'S MARIJUANA BUDGET DEBACLE
I warned that rushing marijuana commercialization through Virginia would lead to reckless governing. This week, that warning came true in the worst possible way.
Governor Abigail Spanberger and the far-left majority in the General Assembly jammed their marijuana retail scheme into the state budget instead of allowing it to go through the normal legislative process, where it could have received the scrutiny it deserved. Now we know the cost of that shortcut: according to Williamsburg-James City Commonwealth's Attorney Nate Green, former president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys, the drafting is so sloppy that Virginia's own prosecutors are warning the law banning marijuana distribution, and the law protecting Virginians under 21 from possessing marijuana, may have already been repealed a full year earlier than anyone intended.
Let that sink in.
Because far left Democrats chose to legislate drug policy through a budget bill instead of a real bill with real hearings, prosecutors across this Commonwealth are now uncertain whether they can even enforce the law against selling marijuana to a minor. Mr. Green himself said it plainly: courts resolve ambiguity against prosecutors, and defense attorneys already have grounds to argue these protections no longer exist.
This is not a minor technical glitch. This is what happens when ideology outruns competence. Governor Spanberger and legislative Democrats were so determined to deliver a marijuana retail market that they didn't take the time to make sure basic child-protection statutes stayed on the books in the meantime.
Virginia families deserve better than a government that can't be bothered to get the details right when the details involve protecting kids from drug dealers.
I am calling on Governor Spanberger and the General Assembly to: immediately acknowledge this drafting failure and call a special session without delay to close this gap and restore certainty that distributing marijuana to a minor remains a crime in Virginia;
Virginians were told this marketplace would be built "safely and responsibly." Instead, the first real-world test of this policy is a mess entirely of the majority's own making.
The people of Virginia deserve a government that gets this right, not one that has to be told by its own prosecutors that it may have accidentally legalized selling drugs to children.
Jason Miyares is the former Virginia Attorney General. We received his permission to print this.
