The Opiate crisis that has been raging and will continue doing so if bills aren’t passed that help the HOME GROWERS for PERSONAL USE. Statistics have proven that states that have legalized cannabis use have drastically lowered the number of opiate prescriptions for patients with chronic pain. This is about harm reduction, not about a police state that wastes even more taxpayer dollars by incarcerating people. I understand the large amounts of $$ that are potentially going to be made by big businesses, shell corporations, LLC’s, and so on…but please think about the big picture here. Look what happened when big pharma (spearheaded by Perdue (and others that followed)). I read just last week that Henrico County just received a (re)payment from big pharma for the impact it’s had on that county alone. Kind of ironic that “this gateway drug (cannabis) is now being used as an exit drug therapy/strategy/solution to this out of hand Fentanyl situation the commonwealth now has. It’s everywhere! It’s probably (shockingly) inside the general assembly building as we speak being used by someone that you would never suspect. Keep the growers (small mom & pop growers) rights at the forefront. Protect the green that is going to help with this epidemic (cannabis) and remember what lining pockets (with the other green$) did with overprescribed opioids that left families, communities, towns, cities, commonwealths & states, and an entire country did to exacerbate fraud, overprescribing, etc. My apologies for getting slightly off topic, but a little smell from one’s own residence is hardly an issue compared to the amount of overdoses that aren’t just happening in the cities. Middle and upper class suburban kids are dropping like flies. VA IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN THIS. COME ON GUYS/GALS!!!

Chris S. 
petersburg, va