Virginia’s governor used his annual State of the Commonwealth speech on Wednesday night to call on lawmakers to enact marijuana reform.

“We need to take an honest look at our criminal justice system to make sure we’re treating people fairly and using taxpayer dollars wisely,” Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said. “This means decriminalizing marijuana possession—and clearing the records of people who’ve gotten in trouble for it.”

Virginia looks poised to join the ranks of states to decriminalize marijuana, with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam announcing last week that he backs the policy.

The proposal is part of Northam’s broader criminal justice reform agenda for the new year, which along with cannabis decriminalization includes parole reform, raising the felony larceny threshold, raising the age of juvenile transfer to adult court, and the permanent elimination of driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines, fees and court costs.

“We do grams, eighths, quarters, half ounces, pounds, wholesale pounds — however you want it,” Jacob Stretch said, standing between crates of dried hemp in his living room that doubles as his hemp processing and drying facility. Stretch, owner of Chesapeake Blue, just finished his first season growing industrial hemp as a registered grower and processor on his family’s farm.

Industrial hemp is poised to be a fast growing sector of agriculture in Virginia. Hemp advocacy group Vote Hemp estimates 2017 retail sales of hemp products neared $820 million nationally and will continue to grow.

The first commercial industrial hemp fiber processing facility in the U.S. state of Virginia should be up and running soon.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Vitality Farms, LLC, operating as Appalachian Biomass Processing, will establish a facility in Wythe County and has plans of purchasing 6,000 tons of hemp grown in the state over the next three years.

In March this year, Governor Northam signed legislation legalising commercial growing and processing of industrial hemp in the state. Previously hemp could only be grown in Virginia for research purposes.

Hemp farmers in Virginia could have crop insurance available to them as early as 2020, according to a congressional press release Thursday, Sept. 25.

U.S. Senators. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA), along with U.S. Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Ben Cline (R-VA), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Denver Riggleman (R-VA), and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) today secured Virginia’s inclusion in a pilot program by AgriLogic Consulting, a private company developing a Federal Yield-Based Industrial Hemp Crop Insurance Program on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Northern Virginia’s first medical marijuana facility Dalisto will open its doors in Manassas next year.

While cultivation centers and dispensaries are completely separate in DC and Maryland, Virginia sites like Dalisto will house every step of the medical cannabis process from seed to sale under a single roof.

Virginia law enforcement could soon have another tool to help distinguish marijuana from CBD, a move that comes after a News4 I-Team investigation found flaws with commonly used drug field tests.

On Wednesday, the commonwealth’s top forensic scientist recommended police officers incorporate a new drug field test, developed by Swiss police, that turns distinct colors when a material contains more marijuana than its hemp cousin, CBD.

Speaking at a board meeting, Linda Jackson said her office ran extensive validation tests on the Swiss kits and recommends police officers use them in tandem with the former kits.

The total number of marijuana-related arrests in 2018 climbed to nearly 29,000 – a total that is three times higher than 1999 totals, according to crime data compiled by the Virginia State Police.