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Virginia cannabis bills passed by House and Senate (Newsletter: February 18, 2026)
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As Virginia lawmakers push ahead with an effort to legalize marijuana sales in the commonwealth, certain GOP members are finding themselves ideologically aligned with their Democratic colleagues, breaking with the majority of their caucus in support of creating a regulated marketplace for adults to purchase cannabis.
In a series of recent interviews, Republican legislators explained their votes last week to pass a House bill that would allow commercial cannabis sales at licensed retailers. The Senate similarly approved marijuana sales legislation last week, though it differs from the House version in ways that will ultimately need to be resolved before reaching the governor’s desk.
Del. Otto Wachsmann (R) told WVTF’s Radio IQ last week that he “went back and forth” on the proposed reform “a number of times” before making the choice to join the majority in support of HB 642 from Del. Paul Krizek (D).
“By putting guardrails on it and having a legal, legitimate market instead of the black market, we can better control underaged sales, hopefully eliminate those, as well as verify that that product being used is pure product that’s not adulterated,” Wachsmann said.
Asked about his vote in favor of the sales bill, Del. Wren Williams (R) said that while “you can’t get everything you’d like,” and “there are details about the bill that I don’t like,” he does want Virginia “to get that regulated market into place instead of having to just continue to fight the black market that we are seeing across the commonwealth.”
Del. Will Morefield (R), for his part, declined to comment directly on his vote, saying he’d wait to review whatever version emerges from the Senate now that it’s been passed off to that chamber. But he said of the Virginia GOP caucus that members voting against the proposal are likely responsive to constituent feedback in their districts.
“Some people have a moral stance against it just like some people don’t like any kind of drinking or anything,” he said.
Virginia’s legislature took action on multiple marijuana bills on a key deadline last week—advancing proposals to legalize cannabis sales, provide a pathway to resentencing for prior marijuana convictions and allow medical cannabis access in hospitals for seriously ill patients.
While both House and Senate marijuana sales measures are aimed at giving adults a legal means of buying cannabis, the possession and home cultivation of which was legalized in the state in 2021, there are several substantive differences that will need to be resolved before the reform potentially goes to the governor’s desk.
Those differences between the chambers’s versions include the start date for legal sales, cannabis tax rates and conversion fees for current medical marijuana businesses to participate in the recreational market and the form of the regulatory body that will oversee the industry, among other issues.
With respect to the Senate bill, members recently clashed in committee about amendments to the body’s version that would have added new penalties for illegal cannabis activity.
The amendments at issue from the Courts of Justice Committee included penalties for consumers who buy from unlicensed sources, the recriminalization of cannabis possession by people under 21 and making sales a class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense and a crime punishable by mandatory jail time for a second offense. As revised, the bill would have also raised the penalty for unlicensed cultivation to a felony punishable by up to five years in jail and made it a felony to transport with intent to distribute cannabis across state lines.
But the Finance and Appropriations Committee reversed the amendments earlier this month amid pressure from a coalition of advocacy groups that sent a letter to senators saying they undermined the “intent” of the legislation and the “will of the people” by adding criminal penalties for certain cannabis-related activity.
Despite some key differences, both chambers’ commercial sales bills largely align with recommendations released in December by the legislature’s Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.
Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021, Virginia lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market—only to have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by the legislature.
Here are the key details of the Virginia marijuana sales legalization legislation, SB 542 and HB 642:
Newly sworn-in Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) supports legalizing adult-use marijuana sales.
Meanwhile, House and Senate lawmakers also advanced separate legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with prior marijuana convictions.
The legislation would create a process by which people who are incarcerated or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana could receive an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.
The measure applies to people whose convictions or adjudications are for conduct that occurred prior to July 1, 2021, when a state law legalizing personal possession and home cultivation of marijuana went into effect.
Also last Tuesday, the House passed on third reading a bill to enact what’s known as “Ryan’s law,” a policy change providing that patients with terminal illnesses who are registered cannabis patients can access medical marijuana at health facilities such as hospitals. The chamber approved that legislation, HB 75 from Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra (D), in a 95-1 vote.
It would require healthcare facilities to establish policies “to address circumstances under which an eligible patient would be permitted to use medical cannabis.”
Under the House legislation, healthcare facilities could suspend medical cannabis allowances if a federal agency such as the Department of Justice or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services takes enforcement action on the issue or issues a rule or notification expressly prohibiting use of medical cannabis in health facilities.
The Senate passed differing legislation concerning the use of medical cannabis in health care facilities earlier this month.
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Meanwhile, the Virginia House this month approved a bill to protect the rights of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law.
Under the proposal from Del. Nadarius Clark (D), possession of use of cannabis by a parent or guardian on its own “shall not serve as a basis to deem a child abused or neglected unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption causes or creates a risk of physical or mental injury to the child.”
“A person’s legal possession or consumption of substances authorized under [the state’s marijuana law] alone shall not serve as a basis to restrict custody or visitation unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption is not in the best interest of the child,” the text of the bill, HB 942, states.
Separately, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry recently published a new outlining workplace protections for cannabis consumers.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment’s Sacramento-based managing editor. He’s covered drug policy for more than a decade—specializing in state and federal marijuana and psychedelics issues at publications that also include High Times, VICE and attn. In 2022, Jaeger was named Benzinga’s Cannabis Policy Reporter of the Year.
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