Virginia Officials Must Recognize Medical Marijuana’s Federal Legality And Stop Forcing Patients Out Of Recovery Housing (Op-Ed)
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“Virginia’s recovery system will only be stronger when it stops forcing people to choose between their medicine and a roof over their head.”
By Jeremy Tillem, GreenhouseRVA
Virginia’s new recovery residence certification law has now been in effect for three weeks. In that short time, the practical reality has become clear: legal medical cannabis patients in recovery housing are still being forced to choose between their medicine and their housing, and state agencies have yet to offer a workable path forward.
At GreenhouseRVA, we have operated a structured recovery residence in Henrico County since 2021. We serve roughly 25 residents at a time, many referred by courts, probation officers, and treatment providers. Our model has always included clear safeguards around medical cannabis use—quantity limits, secure storage, monitoring and zero tolerance for diversion. Those policies were reviewed for months without objection when we first applied for certification.
Then Senate Bill 270 took effect on July 1. The law requires certified recovery residences to prohibit all cannabis use, including doctor-recommended medical cannabis that the federal government has now placed in Schedule III. Overnight, the rules changed under our feet. After careful consideration, we chose not to strip the medical cannabis language from our policies.
Doing so would have required us to abandon a core part of our model and force residents who hold valid medical recommendations to choose between their medicine and their housing. We remain committed to operating with clear, responsible safeguards while we push for the policy change that should have been made before SB 270 became law.
Last week we met with Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg’s (D) office—the same lawmaker who sponsored SB 270—to discuss the operational and human consequences of this conflict. The conversation was civil and the office is aware of the resident impacts. Yet nothing concrete was resolved. Responsibility for the current impasse was largely directed toward the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences (VARR).
Meanwhile, the senator’s aide has requested a meeting that would bring together legal counsel, GreenhouseRVA and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) to address accreditation and operational concerns directly. We received a response to our first email but have not received a response to our second follow-up. The lack of urgency is difficult to reconcile with the daily pressure this policy places on residents who are already navigating recovery, employment and, in many cases, court-ordered conditions.
This is not a theoretical debate. People in recovery who hold valid medical cannabis recommendations are being told they must either stop a medication recognized by the federal government or leave the only stable housing many of them have. For some, that choice has already meant disruption of progress that took months or years to build.
The solution is not complicated. DBHDS has the authority—and the responsibility—to initiate an emergency regulatory review that aligns Virginia’s recovery housing standards with the federal Schedule III reclassification and with the medical cannabis program the Commonwealth itself created.
At the same time, the 2027 General Assembly session must write explicit, carefully limited allowances for medical cannabis into the certification framework, complete with the same safeguards already used for other controlled medications.
We are not asking for unrestricted use. We are asking for consistency: that a medication the state authorizes and the federal government has recognized as having accepted medical value not automatically disqualify someone from recovery housing.
This cannot wait until next session.
DBHDS must schedule the requested meeting with GreenhouseRVA and legal counsel immediately and begin the emergency regulatory process now.
Sen. VanValkenburg and the General Assembly must commit publicly to correcting the conflict they created.
And Virginians who believe recovery housing should support—not punish—people using legal medicine must contact their legislators and demand action.
Until that happens, the current policy will continue to undermine the very stability recovery housing is supposed to provide. Residents deserve better. Operators who followed the rules as they existed when they applied deserve better. Virginia’s recovery system will only be stronger when it stops forcing people to choose between their medicine and a roof over their head.
Jeremy Tillem is the founder and operator of GreenhouseRVA, a structured recovery residence in Henrico County.
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