Multiple bills in the Virginia General Assembly are attempting to speed up the state’s recreational marijuana sales, which could start as early as this summer.
It was in 2021 that the General Assembly legalized possession of an ounce of cannabis and home cultivation of four marijuana plants for those 21 and older. The current law sets a goal of starting legal sales for adults on Jan. 1, 2024 but that plan requires additional approval in a newly divided state government.
It was this week that the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Cannabis Sub-Committee renewed a debate and the panel heard two approaches to speed up legal sales.
Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico) has a bill that would allow certain medical marijuana processors to begin selling recreational products to those 21 and older as early as July 1, 2022. It tasks the Virginia Board of Pharmacy with crafting regulations until that authority can be handed off to a new state agency, the Cannabis Control Authority.
JM Pedini, the executive director of Virginia NORML is an advocate of the bill and has said it gives consumers access to safe, regulated products, rather than relying on the black market.
“Legalization really has to at some point consider consumers, not just who gets to make money first or next off of them,” Pedini said.
Another bill from Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), which was endorsed by the sub-committee, would wait until Jan. 1, 2023 to start recreational sales through pharmaceutical processors.
Ebbin argued the additional six months would allow more time for the CCA to promulgate its own regulations, for the state to launch a public safety campaign and for localities to hold November ballot referendums to potentially opt out of legal sales.
Ebbin pointed out that those entering the transitional market will have to pay a fee currently set at $6 million. According to him, it would be used to help smaller operators get on their feet.
“They’ll have an advantage starting early but it’s worth giving that advantage to meet the demand,” Ebbin said.
