West Virginia Laws and Programs

West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863, when it seceded from Virginia and the Confederacy during the Civil War. As of 2009, its population was approximately 1.8 million, ranking it 37th in the United States. Bordered by Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, the state has numerous supply lines for drugs.

[Page 847]Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in West Virginia with one study revealing that 9.12 percent of the population aged 12 and older reported its use in the previous year. Despite ranking in the top seven states for cultivation of marijuana, Mexican marijuana supplements the local supply. More than 139,000 marijuana plants were eradicated by the West Virginia State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigations from 491 locations in the state ...