The Virginia Senate on Friday accepted alongside social gathering strains a invoice that might license and regulate retail marijuana within the commonwealth, establishing a system of shops that might log on mid-next yr.
The chamber narrowly handed the measure, SB 970 from Sen. Aaron Rouse (D), on a 21–19 vote. Not one Republican voted for the measure, and never one Democrat voted towards it.
If enacted, the laws would enable adults 21 and older to buy as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana from regulated, state-licensed retailers. Sales would start no sooner than May 1, 2026, although regulators on the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority might start issuing enterprise licenses in September of this yr.
Purchases of adult-use marijuana could be taxed at as much as 11.625 %. Municipal governments might ban marijuana institutions regionally, however solely with the assist of voters. Possession and residential cultivation of marijuana is already authorized within the state.
A companion invoice, HB 2485 from Del. Paul Krizek (D), has handed out of House committees and is awaiting votes on the chamber flooring.
Use, possession and restricted cultivation of hashish by adults are already authorized in Virginia, the results of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in 2021. But Republicans, after successful management of the House and governor’s workplace later that yr, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory framework for retail gross sales. Since then, illicit shops have sprung as much as meet shopper demand, feeding an unlawful market that some estimates worth at almost $3 billion.
“In recent years, we’ve seen the unchecked proliferation of illegal and unregulated marijuana stores that has put Virginians at risk as unlicensed drug dealers sell billions of dollars of untested and untaxed products, and frequently to children,” Rouse informed colleagues on the Senate flooring on Friday, noting that his invoice would “ensure that products are tested for safety, accurately labeled, sold in a controlled environment and kept away from kids.”
“SB 970 establishes a regulatory framework for adult use of marijuana through a structured license application process,” the sponsor added. “This bill prioritizes public safety and creating a well regulated marketplace that keeps adult products out of the hands of kids.”
Last yr the legislature passed a nearly identical legal sales proposal, however it was later vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). It’s broadly anticipated that even when the reintroduced invoice passes out of the legislature, Youngkin will as soon as once more veto it.
Here’s what Virginia’s reintroduced marijuana gross sales laws, SB 970 and HB 2485, would do:
- Retail gross sales might start as of May 1, 2026.
- Adults would have the ability to buy as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana in a single transaction, or as much as an equal quantity of different hashish merchandise as decided by regulators.
- A tax of as much as 11.625 % would apply to the retail sale of any hashish product. That would come with a state retail and use tax of 1.125 % on high of a brand new marijuana-specific tax of 8 %. Local governments might levy a further 2.5 %.
- The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would oversee licensing and regulation of the brand new business. Its board of administrators would have the authority to regulate possession, sale, transportation, distribution, supply and testing of marijuana.
- Local governments might ban marijuana institutions, however provided that voters approve an opt-out referendum.
- Locations of stores couldn’t be inside 1,000 ft of one other marijuana retailer.
- Cultivators could be regulated by area dedicated to marijuana cultivation, often known as cover dimension. Both indoor and outside marijuana cultivation could be allowed, although solely growers in decrease tiers—with decrease limits on cover dimension—might develop crops exterior. Larger growers would wish to domesticate crops indoors. Secure greenhouses would qualify as indoor cultivation.
- Only direct, face-to-face transactions could be permitted. The laws would prohibit the usage of different avenues, resembling merchandising machines, drive-through home windows, internet-based gross sales platforms and supply providers.
- Existing medical marijuana suppliers that enter the adult-use market might apply to confide in 5 extra retail institutions, which might should be colocated at their current licensed amenities.
- Serving sizes could be capped at 10 milligrams THC, with not more than 100 mg THC per package deal.
- No particular person could possibly be granted or maintain an curiosity in additional than 5 whole licenses, not together with transporter licenses.
- People with convictions for felonies or crimes involving ethical turpitude inside the previous seven years could be ineligible to use for licensing, as would workers of police or sheriff’s departments in the event that they’re answerable for enforcement of the penal, site visitors or motorized vehicle legal guidelines of the commonwealth.
- An equity-focused microbusiness program would grant licenses to entities not less than two-thirds owned and instantly managed by eligible candidates, which embrace individuals with previous hashish misdemeanors, members of the family of individuals with previous convictions, army veterans, people who’ve lived not less than three of the previous 5 years in a “historically economically disadvantaged community,” individuals who’ve attended faculties in these areas and people who obtained a federal Pell grant or attended a university or college the place not less than 30 % of scholars are eligible for Pell grants.
- A “historically economically disadvantaged community” is outlined as an space that has recorded marijuana possession offenses at or above 150 % of the statewide common between 2009 and 2019.
- Tax income from this system would first cowl the prices of administering and implementing the state’s hashish system. After that, 60 % of remaining funds would go towards supporting the state’s Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, 25 % would fund substance use dysfunction therapy and prevention, 10 % would go to pre-Ok packages for at-risk kids and 5 % would fund a public well being and consciousness marketing campaign.
- Adults might additionally share as much as 2.5 ounces with different adults with out monetary remuneration, although gray-market “gifting” of marijuana as a part of one other transaction could be punishable as a Class 2 misdemeanor and a Class 1 misdemeanor on second and subsequent offenses.
- Quite a few different new legal penalties could be created. Knowingly promoting or giving marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia to somebody beneath 21, for instance, could be a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by as much as a yr in jail and a most $2,500 tremendous, as would knowingly promoting hashish to somebody moderately believed to be intoxicated. It would even be a Class 1 misdemeanor to promote the sale of marijuana paraphernalia to individuals beneath 21.
- Knowingly acquiring marijuana on behalf of somebody beneath 21 could be a Class 1 misdemeanor.
- People beneath 21 who possess or use marijuana, or try to receive it, could be topic to a civil penalty of not more than $25 and ordered to enter a substance use dysfunction therapy and/or schooling program.
- Illegal cultivation or manufacture of marijuana, not together with authorized homegrow, could be a Class 6 felony, punishable by as much as 5 years imprisonment and a $2,500 tremendous.
- People might course of homegrown marijuana into merchandise resembling edibles, however butane extraction or the usage of different unstable solvents could be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
While the present laws is sort of an identical to what Virginia’s legislature despatched to the governor final yr, Sen. Adam Ebbin (D)—a legalization supporter and a sponsor of the state’s current hashish regulation—famous earlier than Friday’s vote that it differs barely from previous legalization payments, together with what lawmakers handed in 2021 and the language initially launched final session.
Specifically, he known as out diminished funding within the present invoice for pre-kindergarten packages, which he stated are in dire want of extra assist.
“This is going to be a while before this bill finally makes it through the process,” Ebbin stated, “but I would hope that whatever is finally adopted, whether it’s a conference report or if it doesn’t make it through this year, that we don’t tinker with the formula, because we have a strong need for pre-K, and it benefits a lot of kids in at-risk communities.”
“Overall,” he added, “I ask that we do support the bill.”
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Despite the party-line Senate vote on Friday, Krizek informed Marijuana Moment final month that it’s attainable some Republican lawmakers might challenge Youngkin’s opposition to legal cannabis sales on condition that the governor’s time period ends early subsequent yr.
Advocates hope Youngkin’s alternative will probably be extra favorable to regulated gross sales, noting {that a} handful of Republican leaders in another states have been extra open to marijuana reform.
Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, informed Marijuana Moment earlier this month that he expects Youngkin would once more veto a authorized gross sales invoice if it reaches his desk this session, however added that it’s nonetheless essential that lawmakers take up the matter.
“We’ve got one more year of Youngkin, and then if we can get it out, get it on his desk, that’ll be two times the Democrats have gotten the exact same bill through,” he stated. “The feeling is that’ll set some very strong precedent for the next governor.”
Separately this week, legislative panels within the state superior proposals that would seal records related to marijuana and begin planning access to psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans.
An modification to the record-sealing laws adopted within the committee’s Resources Subcommittee moved the enactment date of the proposal to July 1, 2026, which employees stated was supposed to permit Virginia State Police to implement the change.
As for the psychedelics proposal, a Senate committee unanimously accepted a substitute model of SB 1101 from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D). As launched, it could would have created a fund to assist scientific trials involving veterans and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-designated “breakthrough therapies,” together with psychedelic substances resembling psilocybin and MDMA.
The substitute model of the invoice eliminated references to the fund, leaving solely a portion of the proposal that might set up a six-member state advisory council to review and make additional suggestions in regards to the therapies, doubtlessly prematurely of a broader compassionate use program. A report from the council could be because of lawmakers and the governor by December 1, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.