Virginia Marijuana Commission Unveils Plan To Legalize Adult-Use Sales Under New Pro-Reform Governor

A Virginia legislative commission on marijuana has unveiled a
much-anticipated proposal to legalize recreational marijuana sales that it
is recommending lawmakers pass during the 2026 session. And with an
incoming governor supportive of the cannabis reform, advocates are
optimistic that the plan could come fruition.

After months of hearings and debate, the legislature’s Joint Commission to
Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market released
a framework for an adult-use marijuana program at its final meeting on
Tuesday.

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 outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin
(R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by
the legislature.

Once the next legislative session begins in January, the new proposal is
expected to be sponsored by Del. Paul Krizek (D), who has served as chair
of the commission, as well as Sens. Louise Lucas (D) and Aaron Rouse (D).

Notably, the latest version of the recommended legislation omits language
from previous measures that would’ve allowed local jurisdictions to opt out
of allowing marijuana businesses within their borders, while also
increasing the authority of local governments to levy taxes and promoting a
licensing structure that prioritizes small businesses.

“Our commission has worked very diligently to review existing law and
develop a bill that will not only establish a much needed adult-use retail
market here in Virginia, but also reflect what Virginians wanted to be. And
we’ve listened to you,” Krizek said in opening remarks on Tuesday.

The panel didn’t release the text of a finalized bill it wants the
legislature to pass—as staff are still making tweaks based on members’
input—and instead posted a seven-page document outlining changes from a
bill that advanced last session.

“Our goal has been to listen, and I think we have. And so this bill
hopefully has a little for everybody,” Krizek said. “It builds a new market
that supports hundreds of small businesses and strengthens Virginia
agriculture, reduces the racial disparities created by the prohibition on
marijuana and, most importantly, protects public safety and health.”

Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D), the vice chair of the panel, echoed those points,
stating that the commission “has taken the feedback that has been shared
through various stakeholders. You will hear support for some of those
recommendations, and you will hear continued opposition to some of those
recommendations, but this is what they are.”

“They are simply recommendations that will continue to be a fluid—continue
to be assessed and further work all the way through this process, as well
as the legislative process,” she said. “But I hope that what this matrix
reveals today is a responsive attempt to try to take all of the feedback
that has been received and structure it into a process and a framework that
we can work from in a more collective way.”

Krizek and Aird—alongside fellow commission member Rep. Will Morefield
(R)—also laid out their thinking on the cannabis rgulatory framework in an
op-ed published by Cardinal News on Monday.

The lawmakers wrote that they “want retailers to reflect the character and
essence of the communities they locate in.”

“That’s why any legislation that removes the opt-out option will also allow
local governments to maintain full zoning authority, set operational
guidelines, review local business licensing and set buffer distances from
schools and houses of worship,” they said.

“We get one chance to get this right. Virginia has gone on too long in a
state of confusion created by an unfinished cannabis law,” the legislators
said. “No matter where a person lives, whether it’s in rural, urban or
suburban Virginia, they deserve access to cannabis should they choose to
use it, and without fear of contaminated products that put their health,
safety and well-being at risk.”

“There is only one way to do that, and it’s with a law that establishes a
retail marketplace for adults that protects consumers and children, allows
equitable and fair participation and access in that marketplace, supports
law enforcement and fulfills the promise of true legalization,” they said.

*Here’s what Virginia’s marijuana sales legislation as passed last year
would have done:*

- Retail sales could begin as of May 1, 2026.
- Adults would be able to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in a
single transaction, or up to an equivalent amount of other cannabis
products as determined by regulators.
- A tax of up to 11.625 percent would apply to the retail sale of any
cannabis product. That would include a state retail and use tax of 1.125
percent on top of a new marijuana-specific tax of 8 percent. Local
governments could levy an additional 2.5 percent.
- The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would oversee licensing and
regulation of the new industry. Its board of directors would have the
authority to control possession, sale, transportation, distribution,
delivery and testing of marijuana.
- Local governments could ban marijuana establishments, but only if
voters approve an opt-out referendum.
- Locations of retail outlets could not be within 1,000 feet of another
marijuana retailer.
- Cultivators would be regulated by space devoted to marijuana
cultivation, known as canopy size. Both indoor and outdoor marijuana
cultivation would be allowed, though only growers in lower tiers—with lower
limits on canopy size—could grow plants outside. Larger growers would need
to cultivate plants indoors. Secure greenhouses would qualify as indoor
cultivation.
- Only direct, face-to-face transactions would be permitted. The
legislation would prohibit the use of other avenues, such as vending
machines, drive-through windows, internet-based sales platforms and
delivery services.
- Existing medical marijuana providers that enter the adult-use market
could apply to open up to five additional retail establishments, which
would need to be colocated at their existing licensed facilities.
- Serving sizes would be capped at 10 milligrams THC, with no more than
100 mg THC per package.
- No person could be granted or hold an interest in more than five total
licenses, not including transporter licenses.
- People with convictions for felonies or crimes involving moral
turpitude within the past seven years would be ineligible to apply for
licensing, as would employees of police or sheriff’s departments if they’re
responsible for enforcement of the penal, traffic or motor vehicle laws of
the commonwealth.
- An equity-focused microbusiness program would grant licenses to
entities at least two-thirds owned and directly controlled by eligible
applicants, which include people with past cannabis misdemeanors, family
members of people with past convictions, military veterans, individuals
who’ve lived at least three of the past five years in a “historically
economically disadvantaged community,” people who’ve attended schools in
those areas and individuals who received a federal Pell grant or attended a
college or university where at least 30 percent of students are eligible
for Pell grants.
- A “historically economically disadvantaged community” is defined as an
area that has recorded marijuana possession offenses at or above 150
percent of the statewide average between 2009 and 2019.
- Tax revenue from the program would first cover the costs of
administering and enforcing the state’s cannabis system. After that, 60
percent of remaining funds would go toward supporting the state’s Cannabis
Equity Reinvestment Fund, 25 percent would fund substance use disorder
treatment and prevention, 10 percent would go to pre-K programs for at-risk
children and 5 percent would fund a public health and awareness campaign.
- Adults could also share up to 2.5 ounces with other adults without
financial remuneration, though gray-market “gifting” of marijuana as part
of another transaction would be punishable as a Class 2 misdemeanor and a
Class 1 misdemeanor on second and subsequent offenses.
- A number of other new criminal penalties would be created. Knowingly
selling or giving marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia to someone under 21,
for example, would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in
jail and a maximum $2,500 fine, as would knowingly selling cannabis to
someone reasonably believed to be intoxicated. It would also be a Class 1
misdemeanor to advertise the sale of marijuana paraphernalia to people
under 21.
- Knowingly obtaining marijuana on behalf of someone under 21 would be a
Class 1 misdemeanor.
- People under 21 who possess or use marijuana, or attempt to obtain it,
would be subject to a civil penalty of no more than $25 and ordered to
enter a substance use disorder treatment and/or education program.
- Illegal cultivation or manufacture of marijuana, not including legal
homegrow, would be a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to five years
imprisonment and a $2,500 fine.
- People could process homegrown marijuana into products such as
edibles, but butane extraction or the use of other volatile solvents would
be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

*As recommended by the joint commission, here’s how the bill would change
for 2026:*

- Retail sales would begin as of November 1, 2026.
- Local government could not opt out of allowing marijuana businesses to
operate in their area.
- Localities wold have greater tax authority, however. They could impose
up to a 3.5 percent local tax on marijuana sales, compared to a 2.5 percent
cap in prior bills.
- Cannabis retailers could not operate within one mile of each other,
rather than 1,000 feet as the original bill stipulated.
- The bill would create a “direct-to-consumer” license allowing
micro-businesses to deliver their products to adult-use customers’ homes.
- Existing medical cannabis operators could have up to nine dispensaries
for adult sales, if they pay a $10 million licensing conversion fee.
- Top-tier marijuana cultivator licensees could have a maximum canopy
size of 35,000 square feet—half the size of what the original bill proposed.
- All cannabis businesses would have to establish a labor peace
agreement with workers.
- Officials would need to explore allowing on-site consumption licenses
and permits for cannabis events such as farmers markets.
- Up to 50 percent of initial cannabis licenses would go to
micro-businesses. And all types of licensees would be limited to a maximum
of five total retail and/or cultivation authorization.
- No sales or transfers of marijuana business licenses could be made
without regulators’ approval. Doing so without approval would result in an
automatic license suspension.
- Marijuana dispensaries that are operated by pharmaceutical processors
would need to keep certain amounts of cannabis for sales that’s produced by
micro-businesses or manufacturers owned by people disproportionately
impacted by prohibition.

“We’re trying to really make sure that there’s no monopolies and no Big
Tobacco, right?” Krizek, the chair of the commission, said at Tuesday’s
meeting, referring to ownership limits on licenses. “And so it’s better, in
some ways, to be a little tougher with this iteration than not.”

“If it comes back a year from now or two years from now, and it’s
problematic, then we revisit the code. We make changes. But it seems to me,
it’s more prudent to be the tough parent, if you will,” he said. “And then
we can always walk it back a little bit because there’ll definitely be
changes that we’ll need to make in the future.”

JM Pedini, development director for the advocacy group NORML and executive
director for Virginia NORML, told Marijuana Moment that the group will be
“keeping a close eye on those inflated licensing fees and proposed tax
rates—ultimately costs which are passed on to and paid for by cannabis
consumers, not corporations.”

“NORML will remain steadfast in our advocacy for consumers’ access to
cannabis products that are safe, convenient, and affordable,” Pedini said.
“Without cannabis consumers, there is no cannabis industry.”

Chelsea Higgs Wise, co-founder and executive director of Marijuana Justice,
testified before the commission on Tuesday, expressing concern that the
timeline to start sales on November 1 of next year may disproportionately
favor existing medical cannabis dispensaries that are able to convert
sooner than new applicants could get licensed.

“It would only be the medical folks that are there and able to sell,” she
said.

Rouse, one of the sponsors of the newly recommended 2026 proposal, said
last month that he’s “very optimistic” about the prospect of advancing
legislation to create an adult-use marijuana market in the coming session.
That optimism is heightened by the fact that state Democrats widened their
House majority, and voters elected a pro-legalization governor, in November.

“Any measure that we can take to find revenue, I’m very optimistic about
that approach,” the senator, who has been the lead sponsor of legislation
to legalize and regulate adult-use sales that was vetoed by the outgoing
GOP governor, said.

“We, in Virginia, have to take every step we can to make sure we can find
revenues that strengthen our communities, that strengthens the education
process, that puts food on the table, that gets people back to work,” Rouse
said.


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This next session is shaping up to deliver different results. In addition
to growing their majority in the Assembly, Democrats now have Abigail
Spanberger as the state’s next governor, and the party also secured wins in
the Commonwealth’s lieutenant governor and attorney general races.

Spanberger, a former congresswoman, told Marijuana Moment ahead of the
election that “as Virginia takes steps toward creating a legalized retail
market for cannabis,” 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 “revenue from commercial cannabis products must return to
Virginia communities and be reinvested for purposes like strengthening our
public schools.”

The governor-elect 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”—and that part of that is establishing “a formalized,
legal, emerging cannabis market.”

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.

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.

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.

The post Virginia Marijuana Commission Unveils Plan To Legalize Adult-Use
Sales Under New Pro-Reform Governor appeared first on Marijuana Moment.