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State Lawmakers Trying to Iron Out Fine Details of Potential Marijuana Legalization

Lawmakers may be on the verge of legalizing marijuana in Virginia. But, they need to wrestle with some thorny issues first.

When the prohibition on alcohol was repealed back in the 1930s, the General Assembly created a new "liquor control plan" and set up a new agency to regulate it: The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. Now Governor Ralph Northam says ABC should also regulate marijuana when it's legalized.

Senator Lionel Spruill is a Democrat from Chesapeake who disagrees with the governor.

"I think this is too much for ABC to handle. We need to have a regulatory commission, another commission to start not ABC. This is really important for us. We need to start from ground zero," Spruill says. "Find another agency that has the time and the know-how to put all the staff together to make this thing work for us. This is not the job for ABC."

That seems to be an emerging bipartisan consensus. Here's Republican Senator Ryan McDougle of Hanover County:

"My perception of ABC is that they are set up more on the enforcement side, not exactly like a traditional sheriff’s or police department," he explains. "But more like that than they are on the regulatory side, which is what we are trying to accomplish."

The governor says ABC already has experience regulating a product that was formerly prohibited. Critics on both sides of the aisle say an agency that enforces the state's monopoly on liquor is not the right way to handle regulation of an agricultural crop.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Michael Pope is an author and journalist who lives in Old Town Alexandria.
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