Virginia marijuana container bill moved to next year
A Virginia Senate bill that would redefine possession of marijuana containers in a motor vehicle was carried over to next year’s session after a committee vote Feb. 11.
The bill, SB 833, patroned by Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, continued with a 14-1 abstained vote in the Finance and Appropriations Committee. The proposal is an amendment to a 1989 bill to allow the carrying of an unopened manufacturer’s container of marijuana in the passenger seat.
The intent of the amendment was to ban any open alcohol container to align with federal law, which would secure more than $30 million in federal funding to transportation and infrastructure, Roem said in the session. After moving through the Rehabilitation and Social Services committee, the bill picked up language to include possession of marijuana containers.
Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, added that the state already receives the federal funding, the bill would only reallocate where the funding goes.
“This discussion is not necessarily the money or the federal grant, but it also recriminalizes the possession of marijuana,” Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, said in the session. “We are on the cusp of setting up a retail cannabis market.”
The bill would ban the possession of any marijuana container other than its original manufacturer’s container in a vehicle. Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, argued that the bill could criminalize home-growers for carrying marijuana in plastic bags.
“This is what drives me crazy about this,” Stuart said in the session. “The General Assembly has said that marijuana is legal.”
Stuart added: “We should not be telling people that it is legal and then arresting them for carrying it in their car.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, explained that the new marijuana language is an effort to align the definition of marijuana containers in vehicles to current alcohol container legislation. Current state law also states that open or non-manufactured containers of marijuana can be carried in the backseat or trunk.
Surovell added that clear language defining marijuana containers is necessary if Virginia moves to a marijuana retail system. A bill which would establish a marijuana market by November is currently sweeping the House.
