Coalition Urges Virginia Governor Not to Veto Cannabis Sales Bill

A coalition of cannabis reform groups, civil-rights organizations, and one of the country’s largest multistate operators is pressing Gov. Abigail Spanberger to sign legislation that would finally open a regulated adult-use cannabis market in Virginia — five years after the state legalized possession but never built a place to legally buy.

The letter, sent Monday, lands at a critical moment. The bills — HB 642 from Del. Paul Krizek and SB 542 from Sen. Lashrecse Aird — are back on Spanberger’s desk in their original form after the General Assembly rejected her proposed amendments at its April 22 reconvened session. She has until later this month to sign, veto, or allow the legislation to become law without her signature.

The coalition includes Virginia NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project, the Virginia Cannabis Association, Marijuana Justice, the multistate operator Jushi Holdings, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Nolef Turns, and the Virginia Minority Cannabis Coalition. Their pitch frames the choice in narrow operational terms: an unregulated illicit market already exists in Virginia. The bills don’t create that market — they replace it with one that has age verification, product testing, retail oversight, and a licensed supply chain.

How the bill got here

Virginia legalized adult possession and home cultivation in 2021 but left retail sales for a future legislature. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) twice vetoed sales-legalization bills, and the state has since occupied an unusual halfway position — legal to use, illegal to buy from a regulated source — that has fueled an entrenched gray market of hemp-derived intoxicants and unlicensed retail. The pattern is part of a broader state-by-state patchwork that has defined U.S. cannabis policy for the past decade.

This year’s legislation, passed in March by the Democratic-led General Assembly, establishes a licensed retail market under the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, with sales scheduled to begin January 1, 2027. Adults 21 and older could buy up to 2.5 ounces in a single transaction, an increase from the current one-ounce possession limit. The bill imposes a 6 percent state excise tax plus a 5.3 percent retail sales tax, with localities permitted to add up to 3.5 percent on top. Revenue is directed to a Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, early childhood education, behavioral health programs, and public-health initiatives — not the state’s general fund.

Other notable provisions: localities cannot opt out of allowing cannabis businesses, delivery is permitted, edibles are capped at 10 milligrams of THC per serving and 100 milligrams per package, and existing medical operators can convert to adult-use for a $10 million licensing fee. The Cannabis Control Authority would also take over hemp regulation from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — consolidating two regulatory regimes that have operated separately and, by most accounts, unevenly.

What the governor wanted to change

Spanberger’s amendments rewrote the bill substantially enough that the General Assembly declined to consider them individually. Both chambers passed on the amendments at the reconvened session and returned the legislation as originally passed.

Among her proposed changes: pushing the retail launch from January to July 2027, lowering the purchase limit to 2 ounces, raising the excise tax to 8 percent starting in 2029, and routing all revenue to the general fund rather than the equity-reinvestment scheme. The largest departures, though, were on criminal penalties. Public consumption, currently punishable by a $25 civil fine, would have become a low-level criminal offense. Possession by anyone under 21 would have become a more serious misdemeanor carrying a mandatory minimum $500 fine or 50 hours of community service, plus a six-month driver’s-license suspension. Illegally selling 50 pounds or more of cannabis would have become a felony punishable by up to life in prison. The amendments also stripped funding for the equity-reinvestment fund and removed language directing the legislature to study on-site consumption licenses and microbusiness event permits.

Spanberger has said the changes followed her conversations with governors of other states that already operate adult-use markets, and that her concerns center on the proliferation of unregulated vape shops and the need to give regulators time to clear out bad actors before licensed dispensaries open. Bill sponsors and reform groups argued that the amendments effectively imported a more restrictive framework onto legislation the General Assembly had spent months negotiating — and that the criminal-penalty additions cut against years of state-led decriminalization work, much of which is reflected in the study commissions the new bill is built on.

What happens next

Three options sit before the governor: sign the bills, veto them, or let them take effect without her signature. A veto would mark the third consecutive year Virginia has approved an adult-use sales framework only to lose it at the governor’s desk. A signature — or no action — would put the Commonwealth on track for a January 2027 retail launch, with the Cannabis Control Authority moving into licensing decisions over the second half of this year.

For Virginia operators and consumers, the practical question has shifted. The legislature’s willingness has been settled twice now. What remains is whether a Democratic governor who took office on a broader cannabis-reform platform will finalize what her Republican predecessor twice blocked — and on what terms.