Virginia becomes first southern US state to legalise marijuana

Virginia on Wednesday legalised the use of marijuana in small amounts for personal use. It became the first southern US state to pass the bill.

The state Senate and House of Delegates voted to allow adults to possess marijuana as of July 1, in a measure approved despite fierce opposition by Republican lawmakers.

Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said that his state had made history by legalising the simple possession of marijuana.

“Marijuana laws were explicitly designed to target communities of color, and Black Virginians are disproportionately likely to be stopped, charged, and convicted,” he said.

Northam said that the state was taking a step in righting wrongs and providing justice to those who had been harmed by decades of over-criminalisation.

Virginia is the first state in the US to legalise pot, but is a key one in the politically and socially conservative South. New York and Colorado have already approved similar measures.

Adults over the age of 21 will be able to legally possess up to one ounce (28.3 grams) of cannabis for personal use, as well as cultivate up to four plants per household.

Like limits on drinking in public, consuming cannabis in public will not be allowed.