As long as Phillip Morris is in Richmond (makers of Marlboro cigarettes), legalization will not happen here in VA.
Follow the money.
If you insist on smoking, stay inside and smoke.
Go outside, you might as well be toast. Or be smart and vape.
With fairfax county cops though- if you are white they will simply confiscate and its 50/50 on whether you catch a charge. Literally depends on the cops mood and if his bodycam/cruiser cam is on or he has another officer there.
Blacks and Hispanics and other minorities- they are going to get a summons- especially. x3 if you are low income- they know you won't have the money to fight the case so would rather arrest poor man Jones living in Annandale with his old toyota and a job at the local big box store he can't afford to lose for the "sure conviction" vs. Brad who lives in Great Falls who makes 6 figures and drive a BMW who can hire a good lawyer to get his charges reduced or dropped.
Being rich helps FIGHT the case in court- any decent high powered lawyer with the right connections can get you off 75% of the time with enough money thrown at them... but one's race is a huge factor in being charged in the first place or not.
Weed charges are a big moneymaker for the COMMONWEALTH as most will plead guilty or 251 out- which means the state gets paid for the drug classes (ASAP)/probation/etc you have to do on top of the court fines and costs.
Right now, ASAP runs about $400, drug counseling ~$100 a session (and they will say you need 10+ sessions just because and you HAVE to do it or else they will violate you) and court costs are like another $100 on top of you $250-500 court fine- for simple pot possession.
The record may be "dismissed" but any decent background check for a job will see you have been charged- and that is enough to deny you any decent job.
Also notice- the cops are concentrated more in poorer areas (more crime, i understand that). You will see 10 cops in a 3 mile radius just driving down route 1 but only 1 cop - maybe- if he was called- if you are driving all around Great Falls for example.
In a more rich part of town- being a minority just walking down the street is just probable cause for the cops to say "they smell weed" or "there was a report of a burglary" and insist you "fit the profile" and search you. Just for being a minority walking/driving down the street minding your business.
Just my 2 cents-and YES I am making it racial because.....
https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon
"At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. "You want to know what this was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."