Virginia State Building.
The Virginia Senate has unanimously approved legislation directing state health officials to develop formal policies governing how terminally ill patients can use medical marijuana while receiving care in hospitals, hospice settings, and other medical environments.
Senate Bill 332, sponsored by State Senator Barbara Favola (D), cleared the chamber without a single dissenting vote. The measure tasks the Virginia Department of Health with convening a work group to establish guidelines for how medical marijuana can be used in end-of-life care settings.
Under the bill, the department must use this work group to develop policies and ultimately create regulations governing the administration of medical marijuana to terminally ill patients. Those regulations must be in place by January 1, 2027, unless federal action to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance is delayed, in which case the timeline could shift.
Rather than immediately changing current law, the legislation focuses on building a regulatory framework to address an issue that hospitals, hospice providers and health professionals have increasingly faced as more Virginians enroll in the state’s medical marijuana program.
The unanimous Senate vote signals broad bipartisan support for clarifying how terminally ill patients can safely access medical marijuana within clinical care environments, an issue that has grown more pressing as medical marijuana use expands statewide.
The bill now moves to the House of Delegates for further consideration.
