Virginia Candidates For Governor Have Contrasting Marijuana Stances As Early Voting Begins

Virginia voters have the chance to decide on whether their next governor
will be someone who supports or opposes legalizing recreational marijuana
sales in the commonwealth—with the two major party nominees holding
diametrically opposed views on the future of cannabis policy.

Early in-person voting begins on Friday in an election that could prove
determinative in whether adult consumers will be able to purchase marijuana
from legal and regulated stores.

While the legislature has twice passed bills to create a regulated
commercial cannabis market after the state legalized possession, use and
personal home cultivation by adults in 2022, current Gov. Glenn Youngkin
(R) vetoed both proposals.

The GOP nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), has staunchly opposed
allowing Virginia to create a commercial adult-use cannabis market, going
so far as to say that marijuana is a gateway drug and suggesting that
legalization is “decimating communities.”

Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is on the other side of the
spectrum, expressing her interest, if elected, in working with the
legislature to develop a system of regulated sales consistent with what the
majority of voters support.

“As Virginia takes steps toward creating a legalized retail market for
cannabis,” the congresswoman told Marijuana Moment that she believes “the
Commonwealth needs a clear strategy to set up a market that is safe for
consumers, transparent for businesses, and fair to entrepreneurs.”

She added that it’s her stance that “revenue from commercial cannabis
products must return to Virginia communities and be reinvested for purposes
like strengthening our public schools.”

If elected, Spanberger said she will “work with leaders in the General
Assembly to find a path forward that both prioritizes public safety and
grows Virginia’s economy.”

Last year, the candidate also said “there are a lot of gray areas in terms
of how we procure recreational marijuana within Virginia—and the state
needs “a clear strategy and plan to transition Virginia into a state that
has legalized retail markets that can focus on these concerns.”

During her time in Congress, Spanberger voted twice on the House floor in
support of bills to federally legalize marijuana. She also consistently
backed legislation to free up banking services for the industry, protect all
state cannabis program from federal interference and expand marijuana
research. The former congresswoman additionally opposed a proposal to
remove protections for universities that study cannabis.

She voted against certain reform proposals, however, including on measures
to lift certain research barriers for Schedule I drugs and to revise
federal policy to prevent past marijuana use from being used as a factor to
determine eligibility for a security clearance.

Spanberger cosponsored bills to provide medical cannabis access for
military veterans on two occasions, and she cosponsored the Secure and Fair
Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act during the 116th Congress.

In 2018 she posted on Twitter that she supports legislation to reschedule
marijuana to a Schedule III substance.

Medical marijuana
I support the CARES Act and HR 1227. I also support HR 1220 which would
reschedule marijuana from Class I to Class III.

— Abigail Spanberger (@SpanbergerForVA) February 23, 2018

Earle-Sears’s public record on the issue is fairly limited, though she
notably did not seem to dissent when Youngkin consistently blocked efforts
to legalize marijuana for adult use in the state with his veto pen.

In a 2023 interview on the John Reid Show, for example, the Republican
gubernatorial candidate said that “as soon as you turn around, there’s some
other issue coming at you, and none of them makes any sense to anybody
except to those who would want to keep us divided, because that’s what
these issues are doing.” She pointed to cannabis reform as an example of
that dynamic.

“I mean, why would we have legalized marijuana? Where are you going to get
a job? Who’s going to hire you?” Earle-Sears said. “I mean, really. And so,
you know, we’re just decimating communities.”

In 2021, Earle-Sears said recreational marijuana is “gonna destroy us” and
revealed that she fired a previous employee for using it.

“I had to let somebody go who worked for me—found out he was on marijuana.
You can’t work for me, you’re gonna destroy somebody’s home, you’re gonna
crash. It’s gonna decimate us, because marijuana is a gateway drug,” she
said. “There is no hope in that, there is no future.”

Marijuana Moment reached out to Earle-Sears’s campaign for additional
detail on her cannabis policy positions, but a representative was not
available by the time of publication.

Spanberger, for her part, said the state needs “a formalized, legal,
emerging cannabis market.”

“We also need to make sure that [tax] revenues flow into Virginia and are
used to strengthen our communities and public schools,” she said, adding
that future sales law should be crafted so that it “prioritizes public
safety and grows the Virginia economy.”

JM Pedini, executive director for Virginia NORML and development director
at NORML’s national organization, told Marijuana Moment that “the choice is
clear for Virginia voters: Abigail Spanberger supports legalizing and
regulating cannabis sales for adults 21 and older. Winsome Earle-Sears does
not.”

Meanwhile, a top Democratic Virginia senator recently said the state should
move forward with legalizing recreational marijuana sales—in part to offset
the Trump administration’s cuts to federal spending in support of states.

While the legislature has twice passed bills to create a regulated
commercial cannabis market after the state legalized possession and use by
adults in 2022, Youngkin vetoed both proposals.

But with anticipated increases in spending in Virginia resulting from
various federal policy initiatives such as the withdrawal of federal
welfare dollars to states, Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D) said
it’s time to get serious about alternative revenue, which should include
legalizing marijuana sales.

Del. Paul Krizek (D), chair of a joint commission tasked with studying and
making recommendations on creating a cannabis market, said lawmakers’ “top
priority is making sure that we’re not setting people up to fail and that
we’re that we have good strict oversight mechanisms, and there’s phased
expansion.”

“But we’ll get it going as soon as judiciously possible,” he said.

Krizek’s panel held its second meeting last month, with members taking
input on tax and revenue options for cannabis sales.

That came almost two months after the commission first convened, as members discussed
broad regulatory considerations and other issues related to THC potency,
the hemp market and more.

Use and possession of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2022, but
retail sales remain forbidden—a situation that’s helped fuel a
multibillion-dollar illicit market. Despite efforts by Democrats in past
years to legalize and regulate the retail system, Youngkin has stood in the
way of the reform, vetoing proposals passed by lawmakers during each of the
last two sessions.

Youngkin, however, is term-limited and unable to run for re-election in
November. The governor’s replacement is likely to decide whether regulated
products will become available in the commonwealth in the next few years.

The governor has also opposed more incremental reforms. In May, for
example, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed deliveries of medical
marijuana directly to patients at locations other than their own homes. It
would have also updated product labeling requirements so packaging would
more clearly indicate THC and CBD levels.

In March, after the legislature passed the legislation, Youngkin
recommended an amendment that would remove language to allow marijuana to
be delivered to places other than a patient’s private residence. Lawmakers
later declined to make that change, however, and sent the unamended bill
back to the governor.


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Youngkin in March also vetoed a host of other drug reform proposals passed
by lawmakers, including the legal sales bill and another to authorize the
prescription of a synthetic form of psilocybin as soon as the federal
government authorizes its use.

Beyond the legal sales and psilocybin bills, the governor also rejected a
number of other cannabis-related reforms this session, including efforts to
resentence people serving time for cannabis offenses and protect the
parental rights of those who legally use the drug.

Youngkin agued in a veto statement that legalizing sales of adult-use
marijuana “endangers Virginians’ health and safety.”

“States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and
adolescents’ health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime,
significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and
significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax
revenue,” the governor claimed. “It also does not eliminate the illegal
black-market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety.”

Even before the start of the current legislative session, Youngkin’s office
had signaled it had no interest in the reform.

Asked by Virginia Public Media (VPM) late last year about the likelihood of
a veto, Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the Youngkin, told the
outlet: “I think you can cite the fact that time and time again he has been
very clear on that.”

Reform advocates are already watching to see where his possible
replacements stand on legalization and other cannabis policy changes.

*Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.*

The post Virginia Candidates For Governor Have Contrasting Marijuana
Stances As Early Voting Begins appeared first on Marijuana Moment.