In June, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order pardoning 175,000 low-level convictions related to cannabis possession in his state, marking the largest pardon related to cannabis possession charges in U.S. history.
Months before the historic move, Maryland lawmakers began considering a proposal to create a reparations system by increasing the marijuana sales tax, among other state taxes.
As the movements for Black reparations and cannabis justice slowly gain ground nationally, advocates in nearby Virginia say it’s high time for the Commonwealth to begin addressing the historic harms inflicted on Black and Brown communities through marijuana criminalization.
Chelsea Higgs Wise is the executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based nonprofit that aims to ensure marijuana is longer used as a tool to further the so-called war on drugs and criminalize communities of color.
“When marijuana, and cannabis particularly, is then transitioned to a gateway of liberation, a gateway towards reparations and truly a freedom … for the same people that have been criminalized for a long time, that is what marijuana justice will look like,” says Higgs Wise, who co-founded the organization in 2019.
In 2019, the city of Evanston, Illinois became the first locality in the United States to offer Black residents reparations using marijuana tax revenue, so far distributing more than $1 million through an initial program meant to remedy the harms of discriminatory housing practices. (The city is now facing a federal class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.)
Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the national Drug Policy Alliance, says such programs are a start. But she emphasizes the need for more serious government investments in uplifting impacted communities.
“There are some jurisdictions that have been dedicating cannabis tax revenue back into the communities most impacted,” says Packer. “The reality is that these resources are minimal compared to the funding that continues to go to law enforcement. There needs to be an equal amount of resources going back into those communities.”
A report by the ACLU finds that Black people are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. While that racial disparity in Richmond, currently sits just below the national average, nearby Hanover County has a striking gap: Black residents there are more than 20 times more likely to be arrested than white residents.
According to the Department of Correction, about 400 prisoners in Virginia are serving time due to marijuana-related offenses as of the end of 2023. Another 1,229 people are either on parole or probation.
Meanwhile, a complicated constellation of marijuana laws continue to disproportionately affect Black residents.
In 2020, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam approved a bill decriminalizing small marijuana possession. In 2021, Virginia’s legislature approved a bill allowing marijuana use, legalizing marijuana possession of up to one ounce for adults 21 and over.
Currently, having up to an ounce of marijuana in public is legal; possessing one to four ounces of marijuana in public incurs a $25 ticket. Having more than four ounces at home is a Class 3 misdemeanor, and having over a pound at home is a felony. The law also permits households to cultivate up to four marijuana plants, providing a framework for personal use. There is no limit on how much can be stored at home for personal use.
Medical use of marijuana has been legal in the state since 1979. As of last year, Virginia has generated over $8 million in tax revenue from medical marijuana since legalization, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
Even as hundreds are imprisoned for marijuana use, possession and sale, state lawmakers have sought to develop a legal commercial market for marijuana, developing a bill that they estimate would bring in upwards of $30 million in revenue in the first full year of sales.
In March, following a strong push from Democratic state legislators, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a cannabis market legalization bill, arguing that it “endangers Virginians’ health and safety.”
Meanwhile, marijuana criminalization and racially-biased enforcement of these laws have also harmed Black and Brown Virginians. Arrests and incarceration have long-term consequences for impacted families’ health and wellbeing.
“Folks who are dealing with collateral consequences are disproportionately dealing with discrimination in housing and employment, in education and health care opportunities,” Packer says. “These collateral consequences that come along with cannabis arrest reverberate into family harms, into community harms.”
Packer points to acknowledgements of these realities even at the federal level. At a May campaign event, President Joe Biden told the audience, “I’m keeping my promises that no one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana.”
Yet while Biden pardoned thousands of convictions last year — including simple possession, attempted simple possession or use of marijuana – these pardons did not occur at the state level. Nor were recipients’ criminal records expunged. Clearing their records would improve their chances of finding stable employment, housing, and other opportunities.
In May, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration proposed reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug rather than a Schedule I drug, a move that would loosen federal restrictions. Marijuana Justice and other drug policy reform nonprofits have said this would be a mere “rebranding of prohibition.”
Not only would this fall short of Biden’s promises of decriminalization, they argue, it would also fail to release anyone currently incarcerated for a marijuana conviction or expunge related criminal records.
Higgs Wise points to the U.N.’s five pillars of reparations: cessation and assurance of non-repetition, restitution and repatriation, compensation, satisfaction, and rehabilitation.
“One of them is a guarantee of non-repetition, just literally stopping the harm that’s happening around prohibition,” she says. “Right now we’re seeing our governments propose something that would be nowhere close to stopping the harm.”
Barry Greene, Jr. is Next City’s Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow For Reparations Narratives and a native of Southside Richmond, Virginia. Through his newsletter and moniker “density dad,” Greene is constantly working to spread awareness of the necessity to think of families with young children as well as seniors within the built environment. As a 2023 NACTO Transportation Justice Fellow, Barry aims to help Richmond return to its glory days of leading the industry in public transportation. You can catch him commuting by Brompton, bus or both in conjunction.