Virginia Republican Lawmakers Explain Why They Voted To Legalize Marijuana Sales

As Virginia lawmakers push ahead with an effort to legalize marijuana sales
in the commonwealth, certain GOP members are finding themselves
ideologically aligned with their Democratic colleagues, breaking with the
majority of their caucus in support of creating a regulated marketplace for
adults to purchase cannabis.

In a series of recent interviews, Republican legislators explained their
votes last week to pass a House bill that would allow commercial cannabis
sales at licensed retailers. The Senate similarly approved marijuana sales
legislation last week, though it differs from the House version in ways
that will ultimately need to be resolved before reaching the governor’s
desk.

Del. Otto Wachsmann (R) told WVTF’s Radio IQ last week that he “went back
and forth” on the proposed reform “a number of times” before making the
choice to join the majority in support of HB 642 from Del. Paul Krizek (D).

“By putting guardrails on it and having a legal, legitimate market instead
of the black market, we can better control underaged sales, hopefully
eliminate those, as well as verify that that product being used is pure
product that’s not adulterated,” Wachsmann said.

Asked about his vote in favor of the sales bill, Del. Wren Williams (R) said
that while “you can’t get everything you’d like,” and “there are details
about the bill that I don’t like,” he does want Virginia “to get that
regulated market into place instead of having to just continue to fight the
black market that we are seeing across the commonwealth.”

Del. Will Morefield (R), for his part, declined to comment directly on his
vote, saying he’d wait to review whatever version emerges from the Senate
now that it’s been passed off to that chamber. But he said of the Virginia
GOP caucus that members voting against the proposal are likely responsive
to constituent feedback in their districts.

“Some people have a moral stance against it just like some people don’t
like any kind of drinking or anything,” he said.

Virginia’s legislature took action on multiple marijuana bills on a key
deadline last week—advancing proposals to legalize cannabis sales, provide
a pathway to resentencing for prior marijuana convictions and allow medical
cannabis access in hospitals for seriously ill patients.

While both House and Senate marijuana sales measures are aimed at giving
adults a legal means of buying cannabis, the possession and home
cultivation of which was legalized in the state in 2021, there are several
substantive differences that will need to be resolved before the reform
potentially goes to the governor’s desk.

Those differences between the chambers’s versions include the start date
for legal sales, cannabis tax rates and conversion fees for current medical
marijuana businesses to participate in the recreational market and the form
of the regulatory body that will oversee the industry, among other issues.

With respect to the Senate bill, members recently clashed in committee
about amendments to the body’s version that would have added new penalties
for illegal cannabis activity.

The amendments at issue from the Courts of Justice Committee included
penalties for consumers who buy from unlicensed sources, the
recriminalization of cannabis possession by people under 21 and making
sales a class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense and a crime punishable by
mandatory jail time for a second offense. As revised, the bill would have
also raised the penalty for unlicensed cultivation to a felony punishable
by up to five years in jail and made it a felony to transport with intent
to distribute cannabis across state lines.

But the Finance and Appropriations Committee reversed the amendments
earlier this month amid pressure from a coalition of advocacy groups that
sent a letter to senators saying they undermined the “intent” of the
legislation and the “will of the people” by adding criminal penalties for
certain cannabis-related activity.

Despite some key differences, both chambers’ commercial sales bills largely
align 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.

*Here are the key details of the Virginia marijuana sales legalization
legislation, SB 542 and HB 642:*

- 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.
- The House bill sets the state date for legal sales as November 1,
2026, while the Senate measure would allow them to begin on January 1, 2027.
- The Senate bill would set an excise tax on cannabis products of 12.875
percent, in addition to a 1.125 percent state sales tax and a mandatory 3
percent local tax. The House measure would apply an excise tax of 6 percent
as well as a 5.3 percent retail sales and use tax, while allowing
municipalities to set a local tax of up to 3.5 percent.
- Under the House bill, the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would
oversee licensing and regulation of the new industry, while the Senate
legislation tasks that to a new combined Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis
Control Authority.
- The House bill calls for revenue to be distributed to a new Cannabis
Equity Reinvestment Fund (60 percent), early childhood education (10
percent), the Department of Behavioral & Developmental Health Services (25
percent) and public health initiatives (5 percent). The Senate proposal,
meanwhile, would put 30 percent toward the equity reinvestment fund, 40
percent for early childhood eduction, 25 percent to the behavioral and
developmental health services department and 5 percent to public health
initiatives.
- Local governments could not opt out of allowing marijuana businesses
to operate in their area.
- Delivery services would be allowed.
- Serving sizes would be capped at 10 milligrams THC, with no more than
100 mg THC per package.
- Existing medical cannabis operators could enter the adult-use market
if they pay a licensing conversion fee that is set at $15 million in the
Senate bill and $10 million in the House measure.
- Cannabis businesses would have to establish labor peace agreements
with workers.
- A legislative commission would be directed to study adding on-site
consumption licenses and microbusiness cannabis event permits that would
allow licensees to conduct sales at venues like farmers markets or pop-up
locations. It would also investigate the possibility of the Virginia
Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority becoming involved in marijuana
regulations and enforcement.

Newly sworn-in Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) supports legalizing adult-use
marijuana sales.

Meanwhile, House and Senate lawmakers also advanced separate legislation to provide
resentencing relief for people with prior marijuana convictions.

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 measure 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.

Also last Tuesday, the House passed on third reading a bill to enact what’s
known as “Ryan’s law,” a policy change providing that patients with
terminal illnesses who are registered cannabis patients can access medical
marijuana at health facilities such as hospitals. The chamber approved that
legislation, HB 75 from Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra (D), in a 95-1 vote.

It would require healthcare facilities to establish policies “to address
circumstances under which an eligible patient would be permitted to use
medical cannabis.”

Under the House legislation, healthcare facilities could suspend medical
cannabis allowances if a federal agency such as the Department of Justice
or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services takes enforcement action on
the issue or issues a rule or notification expressly prohibiting use of
medical cannabis in health facilities.

The Senate passed differing legislation concerning the use of medical
cannabis in health care facilities earlier this month.


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policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon
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Meanwhile, the Virginia House this month approved a bill to protect the
rights of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law.

Under the proposal from Del. Nadarius Clark (D), 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.

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

*Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.*

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Marijuana Sales appeared first on Marijuana Moment.