The New Law Stinks

I’ve always been a “live and let live” kind of guy. Whatever you do in the privacy of your own home is no concern of mine. But there are limits to my laissez-faire attitude. Don’t break the law. Don’t impede someone else’s liberty. 

So when Virginia decriminalized pot in July of 2021, I was all for it. Who cares? A lot of people I know smoke a joint once in a while. And with pot being taxed, we can fund the schools, I thought. (Unlike Bill Clinton at Oxford, I actually did inhale in college. Shh, don’t tell anyone.)

In 2026, five years after decriminalization, there is currently no marijuana retail market. January 1st, 2027, is supposedly when the retail market starts. Very little tax money has been collected from medical marijuana sales. Virginia has a Cannabis Control Authority, but to me, it’s unclear if they actually do anything. Various estimates of marijuana tax revenue say Virginia got $6-8 million in 2025, and 40% of that is supposed to go to Early Childhood Education. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority’s budget was $6.22 million. So, I guess we’re breaking even, but it’s not exactly a giant windfall for the chirren.

Decriminalization essentially meant that anyone could smoke pot anywhere at any time. Gov. Northam signed a bill into law during COVID-19, so no one really noticed it too much, because everyone was holed up in their house. In the past few years, we’ve all started to notice it—the stench of highly potent pot is essentially everywhere. Every single public space, from your local park to the 7-Eleven, carries a putrid, high-intensity skunk weed odor. I sat next to a couple of guys in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago who looked and smelled like Cheech and Chong. However, I didn’t laugh. Shopping centers, restaurants, parking lots, and the Chippenham and Powhite Parkway all smell like weed. I didn’t know it was even possible to smell pot while driving 65 mph with the windows closed. The whole state smells like weed, from Abingdon to Zuni.

So OK, I get it. Everyone is high. People can’t buy it, so they’re still selling it illegally. We’re not getting the tax revenue we were promised. Oh, the number of pot-impaired drivers has risen four years in a row, and that number is expected to increase again 10% or more, once the legal pot retail market hits Virginia next year. And car wrecks are up. States that legalized weed have 3-6% higher insurance claims and so everyone’s car insurance is higher—whether you partake or not.

The good news? Arrests for simple possession of mary jane are down 70%, so the jails aren’t full of low-level misdemeanor offenders. Dang, that’s not right either. I just looked it up, jails in Virginia are still overcrowded five years after decriminalization.

So, again, the government lied to us; empty jails, tax revenue, and public safety were big promises made in favor of decriminalization, and none of it has yet to materialize. I am a small L libertarian. I’m not in favor of Prohibition. It didn’t work out so well for Americans between 1920 and 1933. But there’s got to be a better way to decriminalize pot and protect the public and make money for the state, because this law stinks…like skunk weed.