Got questions about Virginia’s laws on weed? We’ve got answers in our FAQs on the state’s cannabis policies.
One day after a Senate subcommittee approved legislation that would create an adult-use cannabis market in Virginia, the full Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services backed the proposal by a 10-5 vote on Friday.
Two Republicans — Sen. Christie Craig, R-Chesapeake, and Sen. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight — voted with the panel’s Democratic majority. (Jordan previously used the name Brewer, but now prefers her married name.)
Sponsored by Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, Senate Bill 448 would legalize cannabis sales starting on Jan. 1, 2025, and allow all medical marijuana companies already operating in Virginia and new businesses to begin at the same time. “This bill is a culmination of all the work that many folks have done. This is the first step in a much longer process,” Rouse told the committee on Friday.
A Democratic majority in the General Assembly decriminalized some personal possession and home growing of cannabis effective in 2021, but they left parts of the legislation that would create a fully regulated marketplace by 2024 unfinalized.
Republicans have since shown little regard for the creation of a legal adult-use marketplace for regulated, tested and taxed cannabis products, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin said earlier this month that this is an area that “I that I really don’t have any interest in.”
David May, an attorney for the Department of Legislative Services, said that the bill “is pretty straightforward” as far as the timeline goes. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA) would be able to begin accepting applications and issuing licenses immediately, except for retail sales that could not start until next year.
“There is a six-month window for operations other than sales, which would start next year. There is also a provision requiring the CCA to propagate regulations by Dec. 31, 2024,” May said.
Compared to the subcommittee meeting, which took nearly four hours, the full panel discussed the proposal for just over 20 minutes Friday, focusing on just a handful of details in the 180-page bill, including the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, one of many cannabinoids found in the plant that is primarily responsible for the “high” associated with cannabis, that would be permitted under the legislation.
While Rouse’s bill would kick such regulatory provisions to the CCA, Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, the chair of the cannabis subcommittee, said that the agency would have the ability to adopt up to 100 grams of THC per package, which he said is the standard that is consistent with modern manufacturing practices around the country.
“But if the CCA choses to go lower than that, they can, and the Board of Health has to approve any kind of rules about that,” Surovell said.
Another point of contention was the size of the so-called plant canopy, which is the square footage dedicated to live plant production at a cannabis production facility that does not include areas such as office space or areas used for the storage of fertilizers, pesticides or other products.
Under Rouse’s proposal, cannabis producers would operate under four different tiers, with the highest tier allowing for the cultivation of up to 2,000 marijuana plants. But Hunter Jamerson, a lobbyist speaking on behalf of Jushi, a medical marijuana processor in Northern Virginia, said that this would not even begin to address the illicit cannabis marketplace.
“In the medical cannabis program, we utilize 12 plants per patient just to extract the medicines we need. Two thousand is nothing,” Jamerson said, adding that no other state uses a plant count to regulate a successful adult-use marketplace.
“In most other states, the canopy limit for the largest tier is two hundred thousand square feet of floor space. That’s a very common standard,” Jamerson said. “Our facilities in the medical cannabis program are landlocked, we built where we built, we can’t build anywhere else. Our facility footprints assume market standards for these canopy limits. One hundred thousand square feet is not only far short of these market standards, it’s an eminently reasonable square footage for a canopy.”
But Rouse rejected Jamerson’s request to change the plant-count provision in his bill, arguing that it would give the larger medical marijuana companies an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
“It undermines what we are trying to do in terms of supporting small businesses. I think that plant count is easier to track, and it allows for more flexibility for small businesses,” Rouse said.
“The CCA most certainly can address this, but as a patron of this bill I do not consider this a friendly amendment.”
Greg Habeeb, a former Republican member of the House of Delegates from Salem and an attorney and lobbyist for a number of cannabis interests who helped draft Rouse’s bill, suggested that lawmakers add an enactment clause to the bill directing the CCA to study and report back to the General Assembly about the propriety of canopy caps.
“That would give you all the information to then make that decision in the future as opposed to say we are delegating them the authority to override what you have done by code, have them bring back their information. That would be a good way to get all that information before this body,” Habeeb said.
The committee adopted Habeeb’s substitute and referred the legislation to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee for further review.
