× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam on Monday called for decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana in Virginia, saying enforcement is expensive and disproportionately jails African-Americans.

“As a doctor, I like to make the point to people, over 100 of the medicines that we use on a daily basis come from plants,” he said in an interview Monday. “So I think we need to be open-minded about using marijuana for medical purposes.”

But Northam, a Democrat, is talking about more than just medicine.

Northam wrote a column about various aspects of criminal justice and posted it Monday to his channel on Medium.com, a portal for stories and ideas. In it, he cited an ACLU study showing African-Americans in 2010 were 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in Virginia, which spends more than $67 million annually on marijuana enforcement.

That money could be better spent, he said.

“Where there is evidence-based data that suggests that marijuana is useful, then I think we should be open-minded,” he said.