Gov. Ralph Northam says he’ll propose the legislation himself.
Members of the House of Delegates expect it to pass.
In the Senate, legislators give it “slightly better than 50-50 odds.”
Bills to legalize recreational marijuana in Virginia are set to get their first serious hearings when the General Assembly convenes in January and, at least for now, it looks like there’s a decent chance they could succeed.
“We are going to move forward with legalizing marijuana in Virginia,” Northam told reporters last week. “I support that and am committed to doing it the right way.”
The movement in Virginia comes after voters in four states overwhelmingly approved referendums legalizing marijuana, bringing the total nationwide total to 15. If lawmakers in Virginia move forward, the state would become the first in the South to authorize recreational use of the drug.
Virginia has been slowly loosening its stance on marijuana for years, first allowing medical use of CBD in 2017, expanding that to a full-fledged medical marijuana program by 2019 and, earlier this year,…
