Now that lawmakers have taken action to legalize marijuana, they still need to make decisions about how the new industry will be regulated. Michael Pope reports.

Lawmakers in Virginia may be on the verge of legalizing marijuana. But, nobody is taking that news to the bank just yet. Michael Pope reports.

According to Virginia police, arrests for possessing marijuana are on the rise in the Commonwealth. In 2018, almost 30,000 people were impacted. That’s triple the number from the late 90’s. Mallory Noe-Payne has more.

Members of the public largely came out to support decriminalizing marijuana. (Credit: Mallory Noe-Payne / RADIO IQ)

Over the past decade Virginia has arrested more than 130,000 people for possession of marijuana. Those arrests are almost entirely men, and more than half are college-aged. Even though Virginia’s population is only 20% black, almost half of all marijuana arrests are of African Americans.

Those were the findings of a new report released by Virginia’s State Crime Commission Monday. Now one lawmaker plans on using that data to fight for decriminalization. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.