The Virginia state House and Senate agreed on Wednesday on a bill that would establish a legal market for recreational marijuana.
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled legislature largely on party lines Wednesday, which could potentially have the legalized marijuana marketplace up and running by May 2025. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not yet signaled if he will or will not sign the bill when comes to his desk. The cannabis will be administered by the state Cannabis Control Authority and will be “taxed at a rate of 11.625 percent — higher than the 9 percent tax rate in nearby Maryland,” per the Washington Post.
Under the plan, businesses could apply for licenses to test, cultivate, process, transport or sell cannabis products by Sept. 1. The system is designed to give small businesses a chance to compete with large corporations, with some of the license fees funding a “microbusiness support program,” and to boost retailers in neighborhoods that were disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, Krizek said.
“This is one of the most monumental pieces of legislation that we’ve ever had before us,” House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said before voting against the bill.
State House Delegate Paul E. Krizek (D-Fairfax) said the bill will create the market “in a responsible and thoughtful way. And we’ve done so because it’s time to give Virginia’s $3 billion illicit market a run for its money.”
As Breitbart News reported last year, a study shows that marijuana use has reached record levels for young adults and may soon become a practice among the majority. According to a Monitoring the Future study by scientists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, marijuana and hallucinogen use steadily climbed among young adults between 19 and 30 compared to just ten years ago:
Past-year, past-month and daily marijuana use (use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days) reached the highest levels ever recorded since these trends were first monitored in 1988. Marijuana use in the past month was reported by 29% of young adults in 2021, compared to 21% five years ago (2016) and 17% 10 years ago (2011). Daily marijuana use also significantly increased during these time periods, reported by 11% of young adults in 2021, a significant increase from 8% in 2016 and 6% in 2011.
Past-year hallucinogen use had been relatively stable over the past few decades until 2020, when reports of use started to increase dramatically. In 2021, 8% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, representing an all-time high since the category was first surveyed in 1988. By comparison, in 2016, 5% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, and in 2011, only 3% reported use.
Alcohol still remains the popular substance of choice among young adults, while binge drinking and high-intensity drinking has seen an uptick since the pandemic.
The study came months after a U.K. study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry showed people who use cannabis with a THC potency above five to ten milligrams per gram have a higher risk of addiction and mental health problems. Study co-author Tom Freeman, director of the addiction and mental health group at the U.K.’s University of Bath, told CNN in an email at the time that high-potency cannabis users have a “four-fold increased risk of addiction” over low potency cannabis users.
Roughly three in ten people in the United States have been diagnosed with marijuana addiction, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Likewise, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found a 76 percent increase in treatment for marijuana addiction over the past decade.
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