Despite legalizing recreational marijuana in 2024, Virginia remains the only legal marijuana state to not allow sales in any capacity. A bill making its way through the state’s legislature could change that.
Yesterday a Senate subcommittee voted to advance Senate Bill 423, which would establish a licensed and regulated market for legal marijuana.
Under the proposed law, which must be approved through several more committees before it can be considered by the full Senate, the state would license up to 400 marijuana stores starting in 2025.
“We already have a very large cannabis market,” says State Senator Adam Ebbin (D). “Unfortunately, it’s controlled by cartels and organized crime.”
Ebbin says that “We know that adult-possession cannabis has been legal in Virginia for two and a half years now, and it’s past time that adults 21 years and older can buy a safe, tested cannabis product regulated and taxed by the Commonwealth”.
Greg Habeeb, a former state lawmaker who represents the Virginia Cannabis Association, told the panel “Marijuana is legal. We’re not going back. The question is very, very simple. Should we have illegal sales of untested, unregulated products sold by unlicensed drug dealers to children and anybody they want to, or should we regulate those sales, tax them, license the sellers?”
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