KY Narc Guilty in Breonna Taylor Case, VA Lawmakers to Try Again for Legal Weed Marketplace, More… (1/6/25)

Minnesota’s most populous county strikes to help–not prosecute–drug-using pregnant ladies, a Florida invoice would defend medical marijuana-using public staff, and extra. 

Marijuana Coverage 

Virginia Lawmakers Able to Strive Once more for Authorized Marijuana Market. Final yr, the legislature handed a invoice to create a taxed and controlled authorized marijuana market solely to have it vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Now, lawmakers are able to attempt once more. 

Democrats Del. Paul Krizek (Fairfax) and Sen. Aaron Rouse (Virginia Seaside) say they’re planning to reintroduce the identical laws that handed each homes of the Basic Meeting with bipartisan assist. It might arrange a authorized framework for a regulated authorized marijuana market. 

“We’re making an attempt to start out with the identical invoice since we had been capable of get each chambers aboard, together with a pair Republicans. I feel there’s an excellent probability that a couple of extra Republicans will be a part of on this time, particularly within the Senate,” Krizek mentioned

The legislature legalized marijuana possession in 2021, however the then-Democratically led physique left making a authorized market to the subsequent legislature, solely to see the subsequent legislature managed by Republicans who had been a lot much less wanting to go down that highway. As state regulation at present stands, folks can at present possess as much as an oz. and develop as much as 4 crops however can’t purchase or promote marijuana. 

Below the marijuana market laws, the state would license marijuana retailers, set rules for manufacturing and gross sales, and tax gross sales to generate new revenues. 

Whether or not Gov. Youngkin will drop his opposition to authorized marijuana gross sales stays to be seen. Nonetheless, Krizek mentioned he hoped the governor could be open to negotiating with Democrats as a method of burnishing his legacy in his ultimate yr in workplace. 

“I can’t get into his head, clearly, however I feel it’s for that motive it’s price making an attempt, it’s price placing this out as a chance for a compromise in another capability,” Krizek mentioned.
”I feel it’s very doable as a result of he’s already a lame duck and that is it for him, and if he needs to have certainly one of his legacies be an unregulated hashish free-for-all, then that shall be his legacy. Or he may select a rational market with protected, examined, and taxed merchandise.”

Medical Marijuana

Florida Invoice Would Defend Staff from Penalties for Medical Marijuana Use. Home Invoice 83, which has simply been refiled within the state legislature, would defend job seekers and public staff from dealing with repercussions for lawfully utilizing medical marijuana. This yr’s model was filed by Rep. Mitch Rosenwald (D); earlier variations of the invoice had been filed in 2020 and 2024 by state Sen. Tina Polsky (D) however didn’t move. (Polsky says she’s going to reintroduce the invoice within the Senate this yr.)

Impressed by the instances of a jail guard fired from his job and a paramedic suspended from his job for lawful medical marijuana use, the invoice would protect public staff and potential public staff from antagonistic penalties for testing constructive for marijuana if they’ve a medical marijuana card. 

“A public employer could not take antagonistic personnel motion towards an worker or a job applicant for his or her use of medical marijuana if the worker or job applicant is a certified affected person,” Rosenwald’s invoice reads. 

Below the invoice, employers should present discover of a constructive drug take a look at inside 5 days and permit candidates or job seekers a further 5 days to supply proof they’ve a medical marijuana card. The invoice wouldn’t apply if worker medical marijuana use interferes with job efficiency and it contains an exemption for regulation enforcement businesses. 

Legislation Enforcement

Louisville Narc Discovered Responsible of Extreme Power in Drug Raid That Killed Breonna Taylor. A federal jury in Louisville on Friday discovered former Louisville police detective Brett Hankison responsible of utilizing extreme power on Breonna Taylor in the course of the botched 2020 drug raid that left the 26-year-old, black EMT useless in her house.

Police led by Hankison and armed with a search warrant that was based mostly on incorrect info (there have been no medicine in Taylor’s house) started breaking down her door in the midst of the night time, main her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, to fireplace one shot on the dwelling invaders. Police, together with Hankison, returned hearth wildly, placing and killing the unarmed Taylor. She died in her personal hallway. 

Hankison is certainly one of 4 officers charged by the Justice Division with violating Taylor’s civil rights, however thus far, there was just one conviction—in a plea take care of a former officer who was not on the raid however agreed to cooperate as a witness in one other case. 

Prosecutors mentioned Hankison recklessly fired 10 photographs into doorways and a window when he couldn’t see a goal and that he “violated one of the basic guidelines of lethal power: If they can’t see the particular person they’re taking pictures at, they can’t pull the set off.”

Hankison didn’t shoot the bullets that killed Taylor, and the 2 officers who shot her weren’t charged along with her dying as a result of each state and federal prosecutors mentioned they had been justified in returning hearth after Walker shot at them. 

Being pregnant

Minnesota’s Hennepin County Will No Longer Cost Pregnant Ladies for Drug Use. Hennepin County, the house of Minneapolis and the state’s most populous nation, will now not cost pregnant ladies with a criminal offense in the event that they have interaction in drug use. The announcement got here from the Hennepin County Legal professional’s Workplace and County Legal professional Mary Moriarty, who mentioned such ladies will as an alternative be pointed towards the care they should have and hold infants protected and wholesome.

The brand new coverage is efficient instantly and all pending instances shall be dismissed. 

“Drug use throughout being pregnant is a critical concern. However criminalizing being pregnant is unnecessary as a result of it causes the very hurt it seeks to forestall,” Moriarty mentioned. “As a substitute of stopping individuals who battle with dependancy from utilizing medicine, punitive insurance policies make them afraid to hunt the essential prenatal care, well being care, and drug therapy they want.”

The workplace pointed to analysis displaying that pregnant ladies are much less prone to search drug therapy and prenatal care once they worry being charged and imprisoned, that states with punitive insurance policies have increased charges of neonatal abstinence syndrome, and that criminalizing drug use throughout being pregnant disproportionately impacts poor communities and communities of coloration.

“In line with the Nationwide Library of Medication, within the final 5 a long time, the variety of ladies behind bars in america has risen exponentially. It’s now estimated that there are practically 58,000 pregnant folks — disproportionately ladies of coloration — despatched to jails and prisons every year,” mentioned Rep. Esther Agbaje (DFL-Minneapolis), chair of the Minnesota Home Black Maternal Well being Caucus. “By specializing in hurt discount and therapy fairly than punishment, we are able to create a safer setting for all households.”