Marijuana arrests are taking a record plunge in Virginia as prosecutors and police take a step back from enforcing strict pot laws.
Arrests for marijuana-related charges are down 14 percent since 2014. It’s the largest two-year drop in marijuana charges in 15 years across the state. Specific parts of the state are experiencing even larger year-over-year declines, despite the recreational popularity of marijuana in Virginia. Newport News is seeing a 60 percent decrease in marijuana charges since 2011, with arrests dropping from 1,461 people in 2011 to just 578 last year, reports Daily Press.
State officials say the decline is expected to continue in 2017.
‘It ain’t because less people are smoking marijuana,” Ron Smith, a criminal defense attorney in Hampton told Daily Press. “Virginia changes the law very gradually, and you can feel it happening. Even if they don’t say, ‘Hey, it’s legal,’ you can see that slow pull, that slow walk toward legalization.”
Smith attributes part of the decline to police departments statewide being less likely to enforce marijuana laws in situations they deem minor offenses. Officials in various Virginia localities are also prosecuting fewer cases related to marijuana arrests, calling those cases a drain on resources, reports NBC4.
Hampton and Newport News are leading the way on the issue of enforcing Virginia pot laws. Hampton decided to stop prosecuting adult misdemeanor marijuana cases in 2012, and Newport News followed in 2013. Law enforcement officials say there is no standing order of any kind telling officers not to enforce marijuana laws, but the lack of prosecutions makes arrests less viable.
“Certainly locally here in Newport News, the absence of a prosecuting attorney to help the officers with marijuana charges has had a significant and adverse impact on the officers’ ability to make those cases,” Newport News police chief Richard Myers told Daily Press. “And we know with certainty that that has contributed significantly with each passing year to the decrease in our marijuana cases.”
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