Virginia House Passes Bill To Protect Rights Of Parents Who Use Marijuana

The Virginia House of Delegates has approved a bill to protect the rights
of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law.

The legislation from Del. Nadarius Clark (D) is consistent with a measure
he sponsored last session that advanced through the legislature, only to be
vetoed by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). The latest version passed the House
in a 62-37 vote on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, possession of use of cannabis by a parent or guardian
on its own “shall not serve as a basis to deem a child abused or neglected
unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption causes or
creates a risk of physical or mental injury to the child.”

“A person’s legal possession or consumption of substances authorized under
[the state’s marijuana law] alone shall not serve as a basis to restrict
custody or visitation unless other facts establish that such possession or
consumption is not in the best interest of the child,” the text of the
bill, HB 942, states.

When the bill was on the floor for second reading on Monday, Clark said
that the measure “fully preserves judicial discretion requiring a court to
act when a child is in danger, but grounding those decisions in
individualized evidence-based findings instead of presumptions tied to
lawful conduct.”

Youngkin claimed in his veto message last year that the prior measure
introduced “unnecessary complications and risks exposing children to harm.”

“The bill disregards clear evidence linking substance use to child
endangerment, particularly in the wake of increased incidents of children
ingesting cannabis-infused substances following the legalization of
marijuana,” he argued. “By broadly prohibiting courts from considering
parental marijuana use in custody and visitation determinations, [the bill]
risks prioritizing drug use over the health and well being of children.”

The then-governor also vetoed an even earlier version of the bill in 2024.

While current Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) hasn’t specifically weighed in on
the parental rights legislation, she is generally more supportive of
marijuana reform than her predecessor and backs legalizing recreational
cannabis sales, which Youngkin also vetoed.

Meanwhile, the Virginia Senate this week approved a bill to provide legal
protections for hospital workers to facilitate the use of medical marijuana
for patients with terminal illnesses in their facilities, so long as
cannabis is federally rescheduled.

lawmakers are also considering more robust reforms to the state’s marijuana
laws, including proposals to legalize recreational cannabis sales.

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee passed an amended version of that
bill last week, drawing criticism from advocates over changes that would
impose new penalties on certain cannabis-related activities such as
underage possession and unlicensed cultivation of marijuana that could
carry the threat of jail time.

A coalition of reform groups has since sent a letter to the Senate Finance
Committee, where the measure was transmitted, imploring members to roll
back those amendments.

As approved in committee, the legislation largely aligns with
recommendations released in December by the legislature’s Joint Commission
to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.

Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021, Virginia
lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market—only to
have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin
(R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by
the legislature.

The Senate version calls for sales to start on January 1, 2027, while the
House bill stipulates that adult-use cannabis sales could begin on November
1 of this year.


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Another cannabis bill approved by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee
last week would mandate that individuals with certain offenses
automatically receive resentencing hearings and have their punishments
adjusted. A House companion version from Del. Rozia Henson, Jr. (D) also
advanced recently.

The legislation would create a process by which people who are incarcerated
or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the
possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana could receive
an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.

The bill applies to people whose convictions or adjudications are for
conduct that occurred prior to July 1, 2021, when a state law legalizing
personal possession and home cultivation of marijuana went into effect.

Separately, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry recently
published a new outlining workplace protections for cannabis consumers.

The post Virginia House Passes Bill To Protect Rights Of Parents Who Use
Marijuana appeared first on Marijuana Moment.