Virginia Lawmakers Discuss Steps To Prepare State To Legalize Recreational Marijuana Sales Next Year

A Virginia legislative commission convened another meeting where lawmakers
and advocates discussed plans to prepare the state to legalize recreational
marijuana sales.

Del. Paul Krizek (D), chair of the Joint Commission to Oversee the
Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market, began
Monday’s meeting by noting it would be the second-to-last for the
body—saying that at the next and final one in December, members will “go
over the bill that we are working on now.”

The plan is for the body to suggest a proposal that the full legislature
can consider passing in the 2026 session that begins in January.

“Outside of these meetings [as a commission], we’ve been meeting with every
stakeholder that we possibly could, to get as much input into what will be
a recommendation,” Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D), the panel’s vice chair said.

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, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)
has stood in the way of the reform, vetoing proposals passed by lawmakers
during each of the last two sessions.

At the legislative commission’s first meeting in July, members discussing
broad regulatory considerations and other issues related to THC potency,
the hemp market and more. In August, the panel focused on cannabis taxes
and revenue.

At Monday’s third meeting, lawmakers and witnesses explored issues related
to transitioning from medical marijuana to a full-scale recreational
cannabis market—with several presentations focused on how to ensure a fair
and competitive industry that doesn’t disproportionately benefit existing
multi-state operators while limiting opportunities for newer, smaller
businesses.

JM Pedini, executive director for Virginia NORML and development director
at NORML’s national organization, gave an overview of the state’s existing
medical cannabis program, describing how it has prepared the state to
eventually expand into adult-use sales.

“We are already regulating cannabis in Virginia, and we’ve been doing so
for some time,” they said. “This is not an undertaking that was that was
done lightly.”

Pedini also argued for the importance of centering consumers, rather than
businesses, in conversations about effective marijuana policy.

“We don’t have a cannabis industry in the United States without cannabis
consumers,” the NORML activist said. “So if we aren’t prioritizing consumer
needs, then we’re already falling short.”

Ngiste Abebe of the KND Group spoke to lawmakers about lessons from other
states that have launched recreational marijuana markets after having
medical cannabis already in place.

She said that key considerations include protecting public safety,
maintaining patient access, ensuring fair markets and taking advantage of
revenue generation opportunities.

The areas “overlap significantly,” she said, “and they interact with each
other a lot. The choices you make about public safety will impact how much
revenue [and] the choices you make about patient access will impact, public
safety, back and forth.”

Abebe urged lawmakers to limit the ability of localities to ban marijuana
businesses from operating, saying it has been shown to have “huge
unintended consequences” in other states. When consumers don’t have nearby
licensed and regulated businesses to purchase cannabis from, it boosts the
illicit market, she explained.

Max Jackson of Cannabis Wise Guys spoke about how to avoid market capture
and over-consolidation, arguing that the state should not give existing
medical cannabis businesses an unfair head start in selling to recreational
consumers.

“A license to operate in a limited medical market is not a golden ticket to
the adult-use market. Gifting incumbents an automatic advantage is a policy
choice, not a legal obligation,” his presentation to the panel said.
“Virginia retains the full authority to design a new market that serves the
commonwealth, not just the handful of existing license holders.”

Limited-license markets that authorize only a small number of businesses to
sell legal marijuana “fail to compete with the illicit market on price or
access, which undermines public safety and guarantees the failure of social
equity programs,” Jackson said. “The choice of market architecture
determines more than tax revenue; it defines public safety and social
outcomes.”

“By prioritizing diverse local operators, Virginia can build a market that
provides safe, tested products, fulfills the promise of social equity, and
successfully displaces the illicit market—achieving all the core goals of
legalization,” he said.

Damian Fagon, a former New York cannabis regulator who is now a fellow at
the Parabola Center for Law and Policy, similarly told the panel that “with
smart design, profits stay with local farmers and small businesses” but
that “without safeguards, the market will be captured by a handful of
multi-state corporate operators, leaving farmers and small entrepreneurs
shut out.”

He specifically argued that lawmakers should create a two-tier cannabis
market with ownership limits on licenses.

“Virginia’s cannabis market will top $2 billion annually,” Fagon’s
presentation said. “The question isn’t if it will grow, but who benefits?”

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Michelle Peace provided lawmakers with
data on cannabis products that are being sold in the unregulated market
that has proliferated while the state continues to prohibit recreational
marijuana sales. She recommended that officials improve education resources
for consumers, enhance enforcement efforts against illegal sales, expand
testing capabilities and amend the definition of THC under state law.

After hearing all of the testimony from invited witnesses as well as others
who spoke during a public comment portion of the meeting, Krizek, the
chairman of the commission, said that members are “going to be taking
notes, and we’re going to be getting together and working on this.”

“We’re going to need you in January to come down to the General Assembly
when we try to pass this bill,” he said.

As lawmakers gear up to push for legalization in next year’s session, they
will be doing so under a new governor, as Youngkin is term limited and
cannot run again.

With the election in November and early voting currently underway, 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.

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 last month 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.”

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.

The post Virginia Lawmakers Discuss Steps To Prepare State To Legalize
Recreational Marijuana Sales Next Year appeared first on Marijuana Moment.