“The Driver Who Crashed into Me Is High”: How Defendant’s Marijuana Use Can Impact Your Virginia Motor Vehicle Personal Injury Case
Virginia has recently decriminalized the possession of four (4) ounces or less of marijuana.[1] Police in Virginia can no longer “stop, search, or seize any person, place, or thing” based “solely” on “the odor marijuana.”[2] Virginians now frequently encounter the distinctive “skunk-like” odor of marijuana in public places. Alarmingly, Virginians also encounter that odor, sometimes accompanied by visible smoke, emanating from vehicles operating on public roadways. This is so even though it remains a crime for any person—driver or passenger—to use marijuana “in a motor vehicle being driven upon a public highway of the Commonwealth.”[3] Gentry Locke’s personal injury attorneys […]
