For the second year in a row, House and Senate lawmakers have approved legislation (HB 2485 | SB 970) regulating the adult-use marijuana market.
However, the bills most likely will be vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who acknowledged last month in his State of the Commonwealth address that he wouldn’t seriously consider any legislative efforts to establish a retail marijuana market. He vetoed similar legislation last year, as well as separate measures that would have facilitated resentencing relief for people previously convicted of certain marijuana-related offenses and protected the parental rights of lawful and responsible consumers.
In 2021, Virginia lawmakers enacted legislation legalizing the use, possession, and personal cultivation of marijuana by adults. That legislation called upon lawmakers to authorize licensed cannabis sales by January 1, 2024. However, when Republicans gained control of the House and Governorship in 2022, they failed to advance legislation to do so.
This year’s bills passed their respective chambers largely along party lines. House members approved HB 2485 by a vote of 53-46, with limited bipartisan support. The Senate companion bill passed on a strict party line vote, with all GOP members voting against it.
The measures currently do not possess sufficient support to override Gov. Youngkin’s expected veto.
JM Pedini, NORML’s Development Director and Executive Director of Virginia NORML pushed back against Gov. Youngkin’s claims that regulating the adult-use marijuana market endangers public health.
“What’s actually ‘bad for youth’ is leaving the control of Virginia’s marijuana market to illicit operators,” Pedini said. “Every year that we do not enact retail sales in Virginia for adult-use marijuana is another year that the Commonwealth is choosing to continue ceding control of the marijuana market to untaxed, illicit operators. Taking marijuana off the street corner and placing it behind an age-verified counter is a common-sense public safety policy, not a political agenda.”
Governor Youngkin is in his final year of a four-year term.
