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Virginia’s governor is requesting that legislators make amendments to a bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales that they sent to her desk last month.
On Monday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) returned the measure with suggested changes—including pushing back the start date for sales by six months, increasing taxes and instituting new criminal penalties for cannabis consumers.
The delayed launch of the legal market from January 1, 2027 to July 1, 2027 will “allow for additional time to implement a legal market safely and curb the illicit market,” a press release from the governor’s office says.
“Five years ago, the Commonwealth took the first steps to legalize marijuana—and for five years, the work sat unfinished,” Spanberger said. “We are working to set up a marketplace that is controlled, regulated, and responsible—because legal markets only succeed when there are clear guardrails and enforcement to back it up.”
“To keep our next generation safe, we must also ensure real consequences for vape shops that have spent years targeting Virginia’s kids,” she said. “We need to rein in these shady businesses and make sure a legal marijuana market does not make the problem worse.”
Under current law, adults over 21 can legally possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis. The bill as approved by lawmakers would have increased that to 2.5 ounces, but Spanberger wants lawmakers to change that to 2 ounces.
She is also seeking to replace the current $25 penalty in existing law for public marijuana use with a new class 4 criminal misdemeanor.
The governor’s proposal will “strengthen the enforcement provisions” in concert with a related bill lawmakers sent her on the issue “to put a greater focus on consumer and product safety,” her office’s press release said.
Spanberger is additionally proposing that the cannabis excise tax in the bill increase from 6 percent to 8 percent after July 1, 2029, and that regulators be allowed to license only up to 200 retail marijuana dispensaries prior to 2029 instead of the 350 included in the initial wave in the bill as passed by lawmakers.
The legislature is set to reconvene to address the governor’s proposal on April 22.
Meanwhile, Spanberger signed several other cannabis bills on Monday—including measures to protect the parental rights of consumers and allow patients to access medical marijuana in hospitals. She also proposed amendments to legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past convictions and to change rules for marijuana delivery services.
Personal marijuana possession and home cultivation of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2021, but former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) twice vetoed bills to provide consumers with a way to legally purchase regulated adult-use cannabis.
The marijuana sales bills that Spanberger wants amendments to are SB 542 from Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) and HB 642 from Del. Paul Krizek (D).
Here are the other key details of the cannabis bills as approved by lawmakers and with the governor’s suggested amendments:
JM Pedini, development director for the advocacy group NORML and executive director for Virginia NORML, criticized the governor’s move to delay the launch of legal sales.
“After years of deliberation, work groups, studies and commission reports, the legislature delivered a pragmatic bipartisan path to retail adult-use cannabis sales,” Pedini said. “Further delaying legal retail sales is just another page from the prohibitionist playbook, the kind of policy failure Virginians saw under Glenn Youngkin, not what they expect from Abigail Spanberger. Let’s be clear about what July 1, 2027 means for Virginia: another entire year of driving Virginians to the illicit market, endangering communities, undermining public safety and not keeping marijuana out of the hands of youth.”
Other advocates, however, support moving the sales start date back in order to give new businesses more of a chance to compete with existing medical cannabis operators.
“Virginia is now closer than ever to implementing true marijuana reform. It’s encouraging to see Gov. Spanberger listen to the people about the start date and moving it back to July 1, 2027,” Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice. “I am continuing to review the language with hopes that we have not overcorrected with criminal penalties, we protect equal and meaningful opportunities for small business while also maintaining the repair required for moving our commonwealth forward.”
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
Tom Angell is the editor of Marijuana Moment. A 25-year veteran in the cannabis and drug law reform movement, he covers the policy, politics, science and culture of marijuana, psychedelics and other substances. He previously reported for Forbes, Marijuana.com and MassRoots, and was given the Hunter S. Thompson Media Award by NORML and has been named Journalist of the Year by Americans for Safe Access. As an activist, Tom founded the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and handled media relations, campaigns and lobbying for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
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