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Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has issued an opinion that commonwealth’s attorneys may no longer seek to have someone declared as a “habitual drunkard” and bar them from possessing alcohol.

The opinion stems from a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in July that declared Virginia’s habitual drunkard law unconstitutional. The law allows a judge to civilly find someone to be a “habitual drunkard” who could be criminally prosecuted for possessing or consuming alcohol, or attempting to do so.

Richmond’s interim Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette Wallace McEachin asked Herring for an advisory opinion on whether prosecutors should revise their practices regarding such prosecutions in light of the appeals court ruling.

“It is my opinion that commonwealth’s attorneys may no longer seek new interdictions, criminal penalties or criminal enhancements premised on the person being ‘an habitual drunkard,’” concluded Herring in his three-page, Sept. 13 opinion.

The attorney general also instructed prosecutors to go back and cancel existing habitual drunkard orders. Herring had already said last month that he would not appeal the Richmond-based appeals court ruling, saying in a prepared statement that the General Assembly should have taken the law off the books long ago.