Virginia Legislation To Legalize Marijuana Sales Clears Committee Votes, With Senate Floor Vote Up Next

Legislative committees in Virginia’s Senate and House of Delegates both advanced a proposal on Tuesday that would legalize retail sales of marijuana in the commonwealth, where where personal use and possession are already legal.

Members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee (SFAC) voted 10–5 in favor of advancing the measure, which now proceeds to the Senate floor. On the House side, members of the full General Laws Committee also signed off on that chamber’s version of the bill, voting 14–8 to send it to the House Appropriations Committee.

If enacted, the legislation would allow adults 21 and older to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from regulated, state-licensed retailers. Sales would begin no earlier than May 1, 2026, though regulators at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority could begin issuing business licenses in September of this year.

Purchases of adult-use marijuana would be taxed at up to 11.625 percent. Municipal governments could ban marijuana establishments locally, but only with the support of voters.

It’s widely expected that even if the reform, from Del. Paul Krizek (D) and Sen. Aaron Rouse (D), passes out of the legislature, however, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will once again veto it.

Last year the two lawmakers presented competing versions of a legal sales framework, ultimately arriving at a compromise that passed the legislature, but that was vetoed by the governor.

SB 970 and HB 2485 pick up where lawmakers left off.

Earlier on Tuesday, the SFAC Resources Subcommittee passed Rouse’s on a voice vote, sending it to the full panel where it was approved shortly after.

“The bill sets up an adult retail market for marijuana throughout Virginia,” the sponsor told subcommittee members ahead of that vote.

“This bill does not legalize marijuana,” Rouse added, repeating a frequent talking point by promoters of the reform. “This is a bipartisan effort to limit and mitigate the illicit market and drive it out while providing revenues for our localities in our state.”

Krizek, speaking to the House General Laws Committee later on Tuesday, said the proposal “establishes a regulatory framework for the creation of a retail adult-use marijuana market in the commonwealth, to be administered by the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.”

Other than brief descriptions from the sponsor in each chamber, lawmakers did not discuss or debate the bills during Tuesday’s meetings.

Here’s what Virginia’s reintroduced marijuana sales legislation, SB 970 and HB 2485, would do:

• 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.

Krizek told Marijuana Moment last month that it’s possible some Republican lawmakers might challenge Youngkin’s opposition to legal cannabis sales given that the governor’s term ends early next year. Advocates hope the governor’s replacement will be more favorable to regulated sales, noting that a handful of Republican leaders in some other states have been more open to marijuana reform.

Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, told Marijuana Moment earlier this month that he expects Youngkin would again veto a legal sales bill if it reaches his desk this session, but added that it’s nevertheless important that lawmakers take up the matter.

“We’ve got one more year of Youngkin, and then if we can get it out, get it on his desk, that’ll be two times the Democrats have gotten the exact same bill through,” he said, referring to the fact that the term-limited governor’s time in office ends early next year. “The feeling is that’ll set some very strong precedent for the next governor.”

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Youngkin rejected even more minor cannabis last legislative session. He vetoed a proposal, for example, that would have prevented the state from considering marijuana use alone as evidence of child abuse or neglect despite the measure winning unanimous or near-unanimous approval in votes on the Senate floor.

Following that action, Del. Rae Cousins (D), the bill’s sponsor, accused the governor of “turning his back on the needs of our children and neglecting their well-being by encouraging the courts to move forward with unnecessary family separations.”

Separately, last April, Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Shelton said her agency had received a sufficient number of reports of minors getting sick from cannabis products that the commonwealth would create a “special surveillance system” to track the issue.

Separately this session, on Thursday a Virginia Senate committee advanced legislation that would fund clinical trials involving veterans and “breakthrough therapies” as designated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA.

The new bill references the FDA breakthrough therapy designation and the federal Right to Try Act—intended to give patients with terminal conditions the opportunity to try investigational medications that have not been approved for general use—as well as a number of conditions that research shows psychedelics may help treat, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Earlier this week, meanwhile, senators also advanced legislation that would seal criminal records pertaining to simple marijuana possession offenses and revise the state’s record-sealing process around cannabis paraphernalia crimes. The panel also shot down a separate proposal that would have allowed law enforcement to use the odor of marijuana as probable cause for a search.

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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