Pubdate: Fri, 11 May 2012
Source: Virginia Gazette, The (Williamsburg, VA)
Copyright: 2012 The Virginia Gazette
Contact:  http://www.vagazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3760
Authors: Charles Couch and Amir Vera

VIRGINIA IGNORES MARIJUANA REFORM PROPOSALS

RICHMOND - After months of an undercover investigation in 2008, a 
York County sheriff's deputy finally had enough evidence to charge 
Brandon Gomez, then 18, with intent to distribute marijuana.

"I had actually been just basically the middleman," Gomez said, 
describing himself as an intermediary between a dealer and users in 
marijuana sales.

During the investigation, the undercover officer bought 4 ounces of 
marijuana. After Gomez spent a few nights in jail, the officer 
offered him a deal: If he turned in his dealer and buyers, the felony 
charges would be reduced to misdemeanors. Gomez reluctantly agreed, 
and spent the next six months betraying the people who trusted him most.

"The way I saw it, that was almost worse than me having to stay in 
jail  having had to deal with that for months on end," Gomez said. "I 
lost friends because I tried to be honest with my close friends about 
what I had done about the guy I was middle-manning for."

In 2009, Jordan McNeish was 20 years old and living in Albemarle 
County. His neighbors had complained several times about noise from 
his apartment.

When he answered the door one night, thinking it was a friend, it 
turned out to be a police officer responding to another noise 
violation. The officer saw a beer in McNeish's hand. Knowing McNeish 
was underage, the officer stepped into the apartment to investigate.

"He pushed past me, came into my house, threw his flashlight around 
and found a bag of what was marijuana," McNeish said. The officer 
sent his partner to get a search warrant. When they came back, they 
ended up finding 2 ounces of marijuana.

McNeish was convicted of intent to distribute marijuana  a more 
serious offense than possession  and sentenced to five and a half 
years in jail. He got out after six months for good behavior and now 
has three years of supervised probation.

"It was determined to be an 'intent to distribute' charge not because 
of packaging or any other evidence other than quantity. Half an ounce 
is automatic intent to distribute in Virginia," McNeish said.

The cases involving Gomez and McNeish illustrate how severely 
Virginia deals with marijuana possession. Both men felt their 
punishments outweighed their crimes. And both face the long-term 
consequences of being convicted criminals.

Virginia treats marijuana possession more harshly than many other 
states, handing down years-long sentences to people arrested with 
small amounts of the substance. Neighboring states have 
decriminalized marijuana or approved it for medicinal uses, but 
Virginia legislators this year hardly gave serious consideration to such ideas.

An exception was Delegate Onzlee Ware (D-Roanoke), who proposed House 
Bill 485. It sought to allow individuals convicted of marijuana 
possession to petition for expungement, and have the charges cleared, 
after five years.

"I believe in second chances; I believe a person can mess up. And 
once they've atoned themselves and pay restitutions and rehabilitated 
themselves, they ought to be restored back whole  meaning it 
shouldn't show on their record," Ware said.

The bill died in a subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee.

Former Delegate Harvey Morgan, a Republican from Gloucester, is 
familiar with that panel. Before retiring in 2011, he tried for five 
years to relax Virginia's marijuana laws.

At first, Morgan, a pharmacist, introduced bills to expunge criminal 
records of marijuana charges. Then he altered his strategy and tried 
decriminalizing marijuana, changing the $500 criminal fine for simple 
possession to a $500 civil charge and eliminating the threat of prison time.

Morgan's efforts also foundered in the House Courts of Justice Committee.

"The criminal subcommittee consisted primarily of attorneys who have 
been prosecutors, and they have the mindset that it (marijuana 
possession) should not be decriminalized," Morgan said. "If it went 
to any other committee in the General Assembly, it would stand a lot 
better chance."

As a result, Ware said, Virginia remains very strict concerning marijuana laws.

"Virginia is in the minority on this. Other states usually just 
automatically expunge your records after five or 10 years, especially 
on nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors. But Virginia, once again, 
holds the distinction of being in the very small minority. I know we 
have the most restricted expungement statute in the country," Ware said.

Ed McCann, executive director of the Virginia chapter National 
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says Virginia is 
typical of the South.

"I know states with harsher laws," McCann said. "As far as Southern 
states go, we're probably in the middle."

He said Western states generally have the most liberal marijuana 
laws. New England is lenient, too. Connecticut is about to become the 
17th state to allow marijuana for medical reasons. Under the 
Connecticut law, doctors could prescribe the substance specifically 
to patients with debilitating diseases such as cancer or AIDS.

Midwestern states are still pretty strict, McCann said. The 
mid-Atlantic states vary in how they treat marijuana users.

North Carolina has decriminalized the substance. So if you're 
arrested there with a marijuana cigarette, you might get the 
equivalent of a parking ticket.

If you smoke marijuana in Maryland as treatment for glaucoma, judges 
might let you off. Maryland legislators are debating proposals to 
legalize marijuana for medical uses.

But if you're arrested smoking marijuana in Virginia, even for 
medical reasons, you could face hard time  30 days in a state prison 
on a first offense or as much as 10 years on a subsequent offense.

McCann says that's unfair.

"There are a lot of pot smokers in Virginia, you know. We're all 
regular people, and we need to be respected and not arrested 
anymore," McCann said.

NORML's goal is to legalize the use of marijuana by adults. The group 
supports having a regulated system allowing adults to buy marijuana 
for recreational, medical and spiritual use.

"In other words, just like alcohol  with restrictions and regulations 
that are approved by the community so that people know where 
marijuana's being sold, they know who's selling it and when it's 
being done," McCann said. "They can collect the taxes and they can 
make the regulation so that kids aren't being allowed to access it."

An initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol will be on the 
ballot in Colorado in November. The state of Washington is planning a 
similar referendum.

Those elections may determine how the rest of the nation will view 
reforming marijuana laws, McNeish said.

"If that passes, I think that other states will probably find this 
goal is more realistic," McNeish said. "But if that fails and gets 
pushed back another two years, I think it could be seven or 10 years 
before Virginia could do anything like that, because Virginia's not 
going to be the first state to legalize it  that's for sure."

Before Virginia's laws on marijuana can change, Ware and Morgan said, 
the mindset in the General Assembly must change  starting with the 
House Courts of Justice Committee.

"It never gets out of committee ... The people that run it are 
prosecutors, and they don't believe giving any break to anybody. Once 
you're a criminal, they don't believe in giving breaks. It's just a 
difference in philosophy, so they kill the bill," Ware said.

In the meantime, people like McNeish and Gomez must live with the 
consequences of being caught with marijuana. Their criminal records 
will haunt them the rest of their lives, making it hard to find work 
or housing and even vote.

Gomez is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He'd like to 
join the Navy SEALs. But because of his record, that might not be possible.

"They passed this new mandate that said that no one, because they're 
overfilled right now, with any sort of drug charges is allowed in," 
Gomez said. "I know I have potential. I've always wanted to join the 
military, but now I may not be able to join."

McNeish, who works doing auto restoration, said he has had issues 
applying for housing.

"I've been lucky with jobs," McNeish said. "But I have noticed that 
it's been extremely hard for me to find a place. Lots of applications 
ask if you have any criminal record; other applications only ask for felonies."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom