Title:
Virginians: Ask your legislators to decriminalize marijuana
Message:
The upcoming 2011 Virginia General Assembly session presents
an unprecedented opportunity for marijuana law reform in the Commonwealth. Del. Harvey Morgan has proposed a bill
to decriminalize marijuana possession in the upcoming 2011 General Assembly
Session. HB 1443 would replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil fine of $500.
In 2010, a more ambitious marijuana decriminalization bill
never made it out of the Courts of Justice subcommittee. The 2011 session promises to be very different, as no less
than seven bills have been proposed to outlaw synthetic marijuana. Thus, the
full General Assembly will have a robust drug policy debate, and will discuss
changes to Virginia’s Drug Control Act. Whether or not those changes include
the decriminalization of marijuana is up to you. You can make a difference!
Please e-mail your state delegates and senators to ask them to support
marijuana law reform. Use your own words, be concise, and be polite. You
can also call your legislators and ask them to support decriminalization of marijuana.
The important thing is that you let your elected officials know that their
constituents want to see marijuana decriminalized. If enough people contact their elected officials, hopefully
the legislators will be compelled to decriminalize marijuana.
Huge thanks to Robert Sharpe, who drafted the original alert
on this issue, and our allies, Virginia
NORML and Virginians Against Drug
Violence, who have been working hard to enact sensible reforms for years.
Thank you for supporting the
Marijuana Policy Project. Don’t forget to take action
now to let your Virginia delegates and senators know that you think they should not be
wasting your hard-earned taxes to lock away nonviolent marijuana offenders. And
please pass this on so that even more Virginians
can participate in reform.
