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Virginia lawmakers who sponsored bills to legalize recreational marijuana sales are pushing back forcefully against the governor’s suggested changes to their legislation.
On Monday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) proposed amendments to the cannabis commerce legalization measure—including delaying the start date for sales by six months, increasing taxes and instituting new criminal penalties for cannabis consumers.
Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) said the governor’s substitute of her legislation “represents a significant departure from the framework passed by the General Assembly, raising serious concerns about fairness, access and public safety.”
“By making the legal market harder to access, this proposal allows the illicit market to continue to thrive in every corner store in our Commonwealth. That undermines the core goals of legalization and increases the likelihood of untested products, inconsistent potency, and lacks consumer protections,” she said. “It also weakens safeguards designed to prevent youth access and ensure accountability ultimately posing a risk to public health and safety.”
Del. Paul Krizek (D), who sponsored the cannabis bill in the House of Delegates, said Spanberger’s proposal “creates a less accessible legal marketplace.”
“These changes reduce the number of available licenses, delay the launch of retail sales and impose high barriers to entry, resulting in revenue losses, delayed economic opportunity for market participants and the elimination of investment to small businesses,” he said. “These barriers do not eliminate demand, it simply redirects it back to the illicit market.”
Delegate @KrizekForVA and I release the following statement as our historic legislation HB642/SB542 establishing a regulated adult-use cannabis retail market in Virginia was substantially rewritten: pic.twitter.com/58GY4nwVqh
— Senator Lashrecse Aird (@lashrecseaird) April 14, 2026
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.
Aird said that the governor’s amendment “substantially introduces harsh escalating criminal penalties that risk repeating the very harm legalization was meant to correct, particularly in communities that have historically been harmed by prohibition, while simultaneously encouraging intoxicating hemp products to continue to be sold without any safeguards.”
Krizek said “Virginians have not been waiting since 2021 for a legal retail marketplace that will expand criminal penalties, introduce new felony tiers for cannabis-related offenses and expose individuals to lifelong prison sentences while Virginia is actively correcting these wrongs from the past.”
Here are the other key details of the cannabis bills— SB 542 and HB 642—as approved by lawmakers and with the governor’s suggested amendments:
The legislature is set to reconvene to address the governor’s proposal on April 22.
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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