Virginia Gov. Youngkin won’t commit to legalizing retail cannabis while in office

Gov. Glenn Youngkin said on Thursday it’s up to lawmakers to resolve an impasse over recreational cannabis sales and declined to say whether he’d ever sign legislation related to the issue during his tenure.

His comments come after the administration spoke out against the sole surviving bill to legalize cannabis sales for adults age 21 and over, which failed in a Republican-controlled House subcommittee on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after an event at Richmond’s Westwood Fountain on Thursday, the Republican said his priority remained cracking down on intoxicating hemp products like Delta-8. He said it was up to lawmakers to come up with a plan for a legal cannabis market.

“I don’t write legislation for them; they’ve got to sort this out,” Youngkin said. “I have said over and over again, I think that creating a market for cannabis is very complicated. There’s other states that have struggled, and they’ve got to go do the work. And I’ve looked at them for sending me bills.”

In 2021, then-Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation allowing adults to possess small amounts of marijuana or grow up to four plants. The bill set out a timeline of retail sales beginning in 2024 — but only if lawmakers approved it again in 2022. In the meantime, Republicans flipped control of the House of Delegates and executive mansion in the 2021 elections and subsequently blocked legislation aimed at creating a retail cannabis market.

[Read more at VPM]