Virginia Senate Committee Advances Bill To Legalize Marijuana Sales Despite Governor’s Opposition

Lawmakers on a Virginia Senate committee have greenlit a proposal to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana sales in the state, advancing a bill from Sen. Aaron Rouse (D) on a 8–7 vote.

Friday’s OK from the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services clears the first hurdle on the measure’s journey during Virginia’s short, 30-day legislative session this year. Even if the legal sales legislation is passed by lawmakers, however, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has signaled he’ll again veto the reform as his did with a similar proposal last year.

The measure, SB 970, is one of a pair of bills introduced earlier this month by Rouse and Del. Paul Krizek (D). Last year the two lawmakers presented competing versions of a legal sales framework, ultimately arriving at a compromise that passed the legislature but was vetoed by Youngkin.

SB 970 and the Krizek’s companion House of Delegates bill, HB 2485, pick up where lawmakers left off on the cannabis proposal.

“I’m proud to have brought forth a framework for adult-use cannabis through a structured license application process,” Rouse said before Friday’s committee vote. “This bill prioritizes public safety in creating a well-regulated marketplace that keeps adult products out of the hands of kids. In recent years we have seen an unchecked proliferation of illegal and unregulated marijuana stores. This has put Virginians at risk as unlicensed drug dealers sell billions of dollars of untested and untaxed products, frequently to children.”

“A well-regulated retail market is a necessity for public safety and will ensure that products are tested for safety, that they’re accurately labeled, sold in a controlled environment and kept away from kids,” he said.

Prior to approving the legislation, the panel made minor technical amendments to fix certain references to existing statute. The bill now heads to the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee.

Krizek, the House sponsor, told Marijuana Moment last month that “we’re gonna do the same retail cannabis bill” as last session, adding that further amendments could of course happen over the course of the legislative session.

Adults would be able to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from regulated retailers under the, 82-page legislation, with sales set to commence no earlier than May 1, 2026. 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.

Since the bill’s introduction, Youngkin in his recent State of the Commonwealth address emphasized that he has no interest in cooperating with lawmakers to legalize retail marijuana sales, claiming that doing so would hurt children, worsen mental health and increase violent crime.

“Everyone knows where I stand on establishing a retail marijuana market,” Youngkin said in his recent address.

Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults are already legal in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in 2021. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor’s office later that year, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory framework for retail sales. Since then, illicit stores have sprung up to meet consumer demand.

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

Supporters of regulating commercial sales in the state say the move would not create a cannabis market in Virginia but instead regulate the state’s existing illicit market, which some estimates value at nearly $3 billion.

JM Pedini, development director for the advocacy group NORML and executive director for Virginia NORML, pushed back on comments by Youngkin after the address that marijuana is “bad for youth.”

“What’s actually ‘bad for youth’ is leaving the control of Virginia’s marijuana market to illicit operators,” they said. “Data gleaned from decades of real world regulatory experience with cannabis in the U.S. clearly show that states which take marijuana off the street corner and place it behind an age-verified counter see a drop in youth use. In fact, nationwide, youth cannabis use has reached historic lows.”

According to a federally funded survey, rates of teen use continue to decline as more states legalize the substance. The poll also found a significant drop in perceptions by youth that cannabis is easy to access in 2024 despite the widening adult-use marketplace.

Krizek, the House sponsor, said 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.”

Separately, some members of Virginia’s law enforcement community have complained that illegal activity around marijuana has become a major contributor to violent crime in the state. Rouse has responded that legalization would in fact reduce violence and illegal sales.

“Our young people are killing each other over something where we could attempt to mitigate those interactions by regulating marijuana,” he said last year.

Youngkin greeted even more minor cannabis reforms coldly last session. He vetoed another 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.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.