Edited for clarity.
Despite the WV State Democratic Party Executive Committee going full-on Boss Hog trying to out-racist the rabid Republicans, cannabis reform in the Great State of West Virginia has never been as possible as it is right now.
As the 2021 Regular Legislative Session closed, GovernorBig Jim Justice begged publicly at least three separate times for the WV Legislature to send him cannabis decriminalization and legalization bill.
Senate Bill 231 proposed significant improvements to the WV Medical Cannabis program and passed with a 29-vote supermajority.
As of June 2021, , the WV Medical Cannabis Advisory Board is considering proposals to make additional improvements to the purposefully discriminatory medical cannabis program — including removal of the restrictive list of conditions; allowing flower and leaf forms of medical cannabis use; and allowing reciprocity agreements with bordering medical cannabis states.
Racial justice awareness in 2020 has also helped shed significant light on the racist history of the prohibition of cannabis since 1937. Undoubtedly racist when implemented in 1937, cannabis prohibition continued its racist legacy throughout the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and in Clinton’s criminal justice reforms (sic). As the creation of cannabis prohibition was disproportionately racist, enforcement of these policies continues to be disproportionately unjust to this day.
Cannabis reforms for West Virginia were the second most supported recommendations to the PEIA Task Force at their statewide public hearings two years ago.
This growing support for cannabis law changes in the marketplace of ideas represents an open window of opportunity for West Virginians to urge our elected officials toward allowing Mountaineers to be Really Free — enjoying enjoy the wild and wonderful cannabis plant, which our Great Creator put on this planet for us to use and enjoy.
God did not make a mistake when putting cannabis here for us to have and enjoy.
What can you do? Contact all the WV State Senators who voted in favor of SB 231 and thank them for trying to improve the dysfunctional, discriminatory medical cannabis program. Call out the so-called “business-friendly” legislators for creating a state medical cannabis program that, four years after being signed into law, continues to prohibit any citizen from benefiting from what is one of the most beneficial plants known on Earth.
Urge your lawmakers to request Governor Justice to putting cannabis reform on a Special Session agenda immediately. Urge your lawmakers to support medical cannabis reforms as will be recommended by the Cannabis Advisory Board on June 24, 2021. Urge your lawmakers to end the racist prohibition of cannabis and allow our industrial hemp industry to grow and thrive in West Virginia.
Urge WV Cannabis Advisory Board to consider recommending reforms to the Governor and Legislature, SUBMIT COMMENTS IN SUPPORT
If you’d like to submit comments pertaining to any of the proposed recommendations (removing the list of qualifying conditions, permitting patients/caregivers to grow or the need to enter into immediate reciprocity agreements with our border states), feel free to send your remarks to medcanwv@wv.gov with “public comment” in the subject line.
