An 11-year-old boy at Bedford Middle School was suspended for 364 days after being caught with a substance that tested negative for marijuana.

At first blush it sounds like an open-and-shut school disciplinary matter in a zero-tolerance age:

Some schoolchildren claim another student bragged about having marijuana. They inform school administrators. An assistant principal finds a leaf and a lighter in the boy's knapsack. The student is suspended for a year. A sheriff's deputy files marijuana possession charges in juvenile court.

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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) signed legislation Thursday allowing the use of medical marijuana oil for people suffering from severe epilepsy.

As marijuana becomes legal in the District, advocates in neighboring Virginia said they thought even this first small step toward medical use would never be taken.

"They said hell would freeze over before this would ever pass," said Robert Smith, whose 14-year-old daughter, Haley, has daily seizures - and suffered one during a committee hearing on the bill this year. "Seeing how horrific it is, it softened a lot of hearts," he said.

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Bill Blocks Prosecution for Possession of Oils

Richmond - Parents of epileptic children gathered in the gallery of Virginia's law-and-order House of Delegates on Tuesday, almost afraid to look as their long-shot medical marijuana bill came up for a vote.

"I couldn't even look at the board," said Teresa Elder of Springfield, who considers two marijuana extracts a "last hope" for controlling seizures in her 22-year-old son, Tommy.

When she finally stole a glance at the lighted-up voting board, Elder was shocked to see only green.

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Re 'Epileptics say success of marijuana drugs merits state's OK' (front page, Jan. 30): Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As the mother of an adult son with epilepsy, I was so moved to see this story about seizure disorders. There is not very much written about how this life-altering situation affects so many people of all ages.

When all available prescriptions and surgeries have not been successful for a patient, why would there ever be a question about a medical marijuana trial? We should try anything. We should be compassionate. We need some hope where there is little.

Delores T. Horn

Norfolk

[end]

Throughout its history, the United States' approach to controlling recreational intoxicants has varied. Up until the early part of the 20th century, drug use in the U. S. was completely unfettered - heroin, morphine and other substances were sold openly and without restriction. In fact, cocaine, various opiates and syringe kits were once available for order from the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

Beginning with 1914' s Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, a slew of laws burst forth to regulate cocaine, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs of abuse. These laws were often the product of blatant racism, sensationalism and political theater, and they set the stage for current regulations that function as ham-fisted political instruments rather than data-backed guardians of public health.

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The Virginia Senate passed a bill Thursday that would allow people with severe epilepsy to possess a form of medical marijuana without fear of criminal prosecution.

The measure would allow the use of two oils extracted from marijuana that lack the plant's intoxicating properties but help alleviate debilitating seizures. The bill provides a way for epileptics or their legal guardians to avoid prosecution for possession of cannabidiol oil (also known as CBD) and THC-A oil.

Sponsored by Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), the bill passed with near-unanimous support. The bill still needs to go to the House and to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) for his signature.

[end]

RICHMOND - State Sen. Adam Ebbin wants Virginia to join more than a dozen states that have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The lawmaker is pushing a bill that would downgrade the offense from a criminal charge to a civil one with a fine of up to $100.

Under current Virginia law, a criminal arrest for having a small amount of marijuana could have serious consequences - from a six-month driver's license suspension to having to check a box on job applications admitting to a criminal history, said Ebbin, D-Alexandria. There also is a wide racial disparity in how the law is enforced.

[end]

RICHMOND - State Sen. Adam P. Ebbin wants Virginia to join more than a dozen states that have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The lawmaker is pushing a bill that would downgrade the offense from a criminal charge to a civil one with a fine of up to $100.

Under current Virginia law, a criminal arrest for having a small amount of marijuana could have serious consequences - from a six-month driver's license suspension to having to check a box on job applications admitting to a criminal history, said Ebbin (D-Alexandria). There also is a wide racial disparity in how the law is enforced.

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The push by parents of children with epilepsy to obtain medical marijuana in Virginia has resulted in three new bills in the General Assembly that would allow the use of a cannabis oil to battle their children's debilitating seizures.

On Thursday, the parents and children plan to aggressively lobby the legislators who will consider the bills in the Virginia House and Senate, and hope to show them a powerful seven minute video of families pleading for legal access to the oil. The video also shows children in the throes of epileptic seizures and memorializes those who have died as a result of intractable epilepsy.

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The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly session the year was 2011 and the patron was Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. The bill never made it out of committee. The Virginia General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria.

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from southern Virginia and a liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans. The public opinion trend lines are clear.

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The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly, the year was 2011 and the patron was Delegate Harvey Morgan (R-Gloucester), a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University'??s medical school. The bill never made it out of committee.

The General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from Southern Virginia and a liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans. The public opinion trend lines are clear.

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The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly the year was 2011 and the patron was Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. The bill never made it out of committee. The Virginia General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from Southern Virginia and liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans.

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When a grand jury refused last week to bring an indictment in the death of Eric Garner, the New Yorker who died from a policeman's chokehold, the outrage across the political spectrum was nearly universal. Left and right, libertarian and collectivist: Everybody was, for once, in agreement. For a moment or two. Then fissures began appearing. One of them concerned the role New York's cigarette taxes played - or didn't - in Garner's death.

You can make a good argument, as several commentators did, that the city's outlandishly high taxes contributed to Garner's death. Those taxes have created a huge black market in cigarettes, and the cops were busting Garner for selling "loosies," or individual cigarettes, on the street. Not long ago, New York enhanced the penalty for selling loosies, and "an order to crack down on the illegal sale of 75-cent cigarettes in Staten Island came directly from police headquarters, setting off a chain of events that ended in Eric Garner's death," the Daily News reported.

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"Although marijuana is not a harmless drug, the weight of evidence demonstrates that its occasional or experimental use does not pose a significant hazard to individual health."

"Its use ... has few demonstrated social costs - such as drug-related crimes, highway fatalities or health crisis - and current research suggests that its occasional use does not present as great a health hazard as the abuse or use of many other commonly available substances."

Talking points in Colorado and Washington, both of which decriminalized pot by referendum in 2012? Pronouncements in 21 other states and Washington, D.C., that have legalized marijuana in some form? A news release by two Northern Virginia lawmakers pushing for decriminalization in 2015?

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A bill that would decriminalize the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana has been introduced by state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, for the coming General Assembly session.

The effort comes on the heels of legalization in two other states. Ebbin said there have been unsuccessful bills introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates in the past, but that this is the first he is aware of coming from the Senate.

"It would decriminalize simple possession of an ounce or less, but not decriminalize it to the extent done recently in Colorado and Washington state," he said.

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Regarding the Oct. 5 editorial ("Stopping the drug flow will save our lives," The Daily Progress):

Stopping the flow of illegal drugs is easier said than done. Successful efforts to stop the flow of drugs are a very real threat to public safety. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime.

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Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a 10-step plan to expand health care to more than 200,000 Virginians. Step nine is to take bold actions to reduce deaths from prescription drug and heroin abuse. Last year, more Virginians died of overdose deaths than were killed in car accidents. The prescription drug problem has reached a crisis in Virginia, where some county death rates are the highest in the entire nation. McAuliffe intends to reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Virginia and will create a task force to combat prescription drug and heroin abuse.

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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a 10-step plan to expand health care to Virginians. Step nine is to take bold actions to reduce deaths from prescription drug and heroin abuse.

Last year, more Virginians died of overdose deaths than were killed in car accidents. The prescription drug problem has reached a crisis in Virginia, where some county death rates are the highest in the entire nation.

McAuliffe intends to reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Virginia and will create a task force to combat prescription drug and heroin abuse.

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The Times- Dispatch's premise in a recent editorial that "we can't run tests until we reclassify marijuana" is inaccurate. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA), as of Jan. 31, there were 28 active research grants on the possible therapeutic uses of marijuana.

The NIDA, the Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) all have a clear course of action available for those applying to conduct this type of research. In May, the DEA even upped the amount of marijuana that can be produced for research purposes in the United States.

Regardless of the federal government's classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, clinical research can be conducted on marijuana and is being done today. To state otherwise is inaccurate.

6TH DISTRICT, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. WASHINGTON.

[end]

To the Editor:

In the 1960s, civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, and elsewhere faced local police officers armed with hand held batons, fire hoses, attack dogs and horse-mounted riot control officers.

Recently, in Ferguson, Missouri, civic rights protestors went up against aggressive local police officers equipped with body armor, automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and at least one police sniper aiming a telescope-equipped assault rifle at the protestors.

Street protests today look a lot like those of the 1960s but, with drug war-driven militarization of local law enforcement agencies since then, the police response in Ferguson now looks a lot like urban warfare.

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