Cannabis plans for adult use in Virginia have been halted due to failed bills

Although adult-use cannabis sales in Virginia were expected to begin no later than January 1, 2024, adult-use cannabis sales plans have stalled for the foreseeable future.

Originally, cannabis for adult use was sent to the desk of former Gov. Ralph Northam by a Democratic-controlled General Assembly, who signed the law into law in April 2021. The law contained a clause requiring the General Assembly to approve certain provisions such as regulation and licensing market structure. However, in November 2021, the General Assembly, as well as the House of Representatives, switched to Republican control, ultimately leading to the failure of interim bills.

In January, a House subcommittee rejected a Republican-sponsored cannabis bill that would have allowed sales to begin before January 1, 2024. Regulations, calling the situation a “public health crisis,” shortly before the bill was voted down on January 25. “You can legally possess marijuana in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but you can’t legally buy it,” Hodges said. “If we don’t do anything, we have a problem. We must protect Virginia citizens from the illegal market.”

According to JM Pedini, development director of NORML and executive director of Virginia NORML, JM Pedini stated that the result of the vote “was fully expected but is still disappointing and it demonstrates the continued failure of House Republicans on cannabis policy,” Pedini said . “Without access to a regulated marketplace, consumers don’t know if they’re getting a safe, tested product or one contaminated with potentially dangerous adulterants.”

“This vote is another major disappointment for Virginians, a majority of whom favor quick access to retail sales,” Pedini continued. “Regulatory oversight laws are the best way for the Commonwealth to protect cannabis users. By failing to take legislative action, lawmakers are choosing to continue to drive consumers into the unregulated underground market.”

MJBizDaily suggests that the failure to pass these cannabis legislative efforts is partly due to current Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pressuring lawmakers to scrap all cannabis legislation.

On February 14, Senate Bill 1133, sponsored by Senator Adam Ebbin, was recommended to pass indefinitely. “It’s legal to possess small amounts of cannabis, it’s legal to grow your own cannabis,” Ebbin told the subcommittee before the bill was voted down. “Yet we’re dragging our feet to build a retail market that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, offer a tried-and-tested product for adults, and be kept out of the reach of children.”

In odd-numbered years, the Virginia General Assembly meets for only 30 days and was adjourned on February 25, leaving lawmakers with no additional time to propose an alternative.

In the hemp space, the Virginia House of Delegates (85 votes to 9) and the Virginia Senate (23 votes to 17) both passed legislation on Feb. 24 to create stricter regulations for Delta-8 hemp products. If passed, it would create new rules for labels, such as B. Use percent and milligram amounts of THC in each Delate-8 product, as well as any language that markets the products as medicinal treatments of any kind. “I think this will go a long way in ensuring that our communities are safe and that people are buying what they say they are buying,” said House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore.
The bill proposes that responsibility and management between the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Lawmakers like Senator Scott Surovell don’t believe split control is the best course of action. “This is a first step towards a complete mess,” Surovell said. “And the reason we’re doing this is because someone upstairs doesn’t want to talk about it.” The bill was recently sent to Gov. Youngkin for signature.