Virginia NORML | Studies, Stats, and Data

Studies, Stats, and Data

VA Joint Subcommittee Report on Reconsidering Virginia's Marijuana Laws

This is a report from 1979 in which a joint subcommittee of the Virginia General Assembly recommended that marijuana be decriminalized.  Note the following highlights:

Law enforcement efforts have not had a significant impact on the availability or use of marijuana.

The money and manpower committed to controlling marijuana use greatly exceeds its social costs or potential for individual harm.

Marijuana does not lead to aggressive behavior or to crimes against persons or property.

There is no evidence to suggest that marijuana use necessarily leads to the use of other drugs.

Marijuana is widely used and pervasive among the citizens of Virginia, notwithstanding its possible harmful effects.

Current laws have drawn a large segment of Virginia’s population within the criminal justice system without succeeding in deterring the expansion of marijuana use.

These facts have not changed in the past 33 years.