Rusty Williams and Chris Yeager are both Democrats who are running in West Virginia House Districts 35 and 14 respectively.

The two have recently announced that if they are elected in November they will introduce the nation’s strongest cannabis bill.

The planned legislation is titled “The Normalization of Cannabis Act,” which was featured in a video streamed Friday on Facebook from Yeager’s hemp farm in Mason County.

“I think that this bill is a great draft,” said Yeager, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Yeager also owns Appalachian Cannabis Co., which makes products from CBD derived from his farm’s hemp. “It gives us a starting point.”

Williams described his new proposal in Friday’s video as “the first piece of comprehensive cannabis legislation that we intend to introduce should we both be fortunate enough to win in November.”

“People hear the term ‘comprehensive cannabis’ and want to know what that means,” Williams said on the live stream. “What that means is this bill will decriminalize the cultivation, production and personal use of cannabis for all West Virginia adults over 21.”

Under the proposal, all adults 21 and over could grow up to 12 cannabis plants for personal use. While the bill would establish a “framework for taxation of commercial sales,” the candidates said.

“One of the major criticisms we’ve had with the Medical Cannabis Act is that the entire industry was going to be run by ten companies,” Williams said. “When we end prohibition, we have got to make sure that we clear a path for small businesses and small farmers to get into the game and participate in this industry, and that’s exactly what micro permitting will do.”

The prospective bill would also expunge the records of nonviolent cannabis convictions dating back to 1937, when prohibition first began, Williams said.
“Not only will we release people from jail who are wrongfully incarcerated for possessing or using a plant, but this bill also provides for transitional services for people released, so we can help them with schooling, education, housing, anything that we can help them with to get them back into society, which is where they should be in the first place,” he said.


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