Police Chief In This Low-Crime City Blames Illicit Cannabis For Its Woes, Prompting State Senator's Push For Legal Sales

Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said last week that the illicit cannabis market is largely to blame for shooting violence.

“Where you may think it will be heroin, you may think it will be cocaine, methamphetamine, nope. It’s marijuana. We have young men losing their lives in this community today over 200 dollars’ worth of marijuana,” Neudigate told 13News Now. “Marijuana drives a lot of my shooting violence, it drives a lot of my robbery violence, and it drives a lot of my homicide violence.”

Following these statistics, State Sen. Aaron Rouse (D) renewed a call for legal cannabis sales, saying in a post on X that the solution to the violent crime in the city is simple.

It's simple – and we know the solution. A legal retail marijuana market would reduce violent crime in our city and across the Commonwealth. It's past time to get it done. pic.twitter.com/4UCdwiz5DX

— Aaron Rouse (@AaronRouseVA) June 4, 2024

In March, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed legislation that would have established a legal marketplace for cannabis, making good on his often repeated comments that he didn't “have a lot of interest in it” even though recreational marijuana was legalized nearly three years ago. In April 2021, Virginia became the first southern state to legalize marijuana without sales, under then-Democratic Governor Ralph Northam.

“When you have a structured market where you can regulate, you can enforce, you can tax cannabis sales, what that does is drive out the black market,” Rouse, who sponsored the recently vetoed bill told the outlet.

“Our young people are killing each other over something where we could have attempted to mitigate those interactions by regulating marijuana and cannabis sales,” Rouse said. “What it did attempt to do is get rid of the gray area when it comes to regulating, enforcing and taxing marijuana while trying to provide revenues for our state — we could put that towards transportation, we can put that towards these tolls, we can put it towards education.”

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Governor Stands By His Decision

In a statement Monday, Youngkin's press secretary Christian Martinez said the governor stands by his decision. “Instead of following the failed paths of other states and endangering Virginians' health and safety, Governor Youngkin will continue to address the inconsistencies in enforcement and regulation in Virginia's current laws which don't justify expanding access to cannabis. Efforts by other states to regulate the black market for cannabis have largely failed because legalizing weed does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of cannabis, ensure product safety, and have fallen short of revenue expectations and forecasts.”

Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, stated the opposite explaining that legal cannabis sales reduce crime and reduce violence, because most people are willing to pay a bit more for a safe and tested product.

What's more, cannabis-related pediatric visits to emergency rooms in Virginia have declined after the state-regulated THC and hemp-based products, according to the data from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. These statistics underscore the power of regulations, but apparently not enough to convince the governor.

“Unfortunately, I think until something super catastrophic happens or continues to happen across the state, [Youngkin] is sort of dug in and I don't think he's going to change his mind,” Blanchette added.

Related Links:

Virginia’s ‘Surveillance System’ To Track ‘Adverse Events’ Related To Cannabis Use

Virginia Firefighters And Public Workers Can Now Use Cannabis Oil Treatments With No Fear Of Punishment

Photo: Courtesy of Kindel Media via Pexels