The Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have approved competing bills to regulate and tax recreational marijuana sales, more than two years after the state legalized the possession of cannabis by adults. Each bill now heads to the other chamber of the state legislature, where lawmakers are expected to make several amendments to the measures.

Both bills legalize retail sales of cannabis to adults aged 21 and older with a scheduled start date of January 1, 2025, according to a report from the nonprofit cannabis advocacy group the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). In the House, HB 698 from Delegate Paul Krizek would levy a tax of 9% on cannabis sales, which would be exempt from normal state and local retail sales taxes. A separate bill from state Senator Aaron Rouse, SB 448, would add a 16% tax to cannabis sales on top of the regular state and local retail sales taxes.

NORML Development Director JM Pedini, who uses the pronoun they, testified before both chambers of the legislature in support of the bills. In the Senate, they asked lawmakers to amend SB 448 to remove penalties for people who make cannabis products such as baked goods or tinctures that are intended for personal use and for possessing legal amounts in public.

HB 698 was passed by delegates in the House on Monday by a vote of 52-48. In the Senate, SB 488 was approved by a vote of 21-18 on Tuesday. The two bills will each now head to the other legislative chamber for consideration.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are expected to amend the bills by substituting the version each chamber has already passed. The legislation would then head to a conference committee where representatives of each chamber will work to come to a consensus on a compromise measure.

“The real work will be done in conference committee, at which point conferees must decide if these are simply messaging bills, or if they intend to send Governor Youngkin something palatable enough for him to even consider not vetoing,” said NORML’s Pedini, who also serves as the executive director of Virginia NORML.

Weed Possession Legalized in 2021

Legislation passed in July 2021 legalized the possession of cannabis by adults aged 21 and older, but a reenactment clause requiring a second vote to authorize retail sales was not taken up after Republicans took control of the state legislature later in 2021. Last year, Republican Glenn Youngkin said that he was not interested in legalizing cannabis sales.

“Governor Youngkin has stated that he is not interested in any further moves towards legalization of adult recreational-use marijuana, so I wouldn’t expect that during his administration,” Joseph Guthrie, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said at a public meeting in June 2023, according to a report from the Washington Post.

Lawmakers also heard from opponents of legalizing sales of recreational weed in Virginia including, as might be expected, representatives of law enforcement. In a letter to the legislature from the Virginia Sheriff’s Association, the Virginia State Police Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, police officials told lawmakers that they are opposed to a regulated adult-use cannabis market.

“Legalizing retail sales will undermine the work Gov. Youngkin’s administration has undertaken to improve behavioral health in the Commonwealth,” the letter states, according to a report from local media. “We collectively appreciate the focus on the ‘Right Help Right Now Plan’ and the strides we have made in better serving our communities with additional behavioral-health resources.”

The letter also warned that a legal recreational marijuana market will not eliminate illicit sales of marijuana in Virginia.

“States with legal retail cannabis have failed to extinguish the cannabis black market,” the letter states, “while also seeing that cannabis tourism creates a nexus for the international drug trade that is dominated by organized crime, and an increase in illegal operation following legalization.”

But Pedini argues that since the possession of cannabis was legalized, the unlicensed cannabis market has increased significantly.

“Absent a legal marketplace, Virginia’s illicit market has since ballooned from $1.8 billion in 2021 to $2.4 billion in 2023,” said Pedini. “Unfortunately, consumers don’t know whether they’re getting a safe product or one contaminated with potentially dangerous adulterants. Unregulated marijuana isn’t lab tested for purity and it isn’t sold in packaging that is both childproof and not appealing to children.”

“Ultimately, Governor Youngkin will have to decide if he’s more interested in allowing unlicensed, unregulated operators to continue controlling cannabis in the Commonwealth or if he’s finally ready to extend the same commonsense provisions already used to regulate the legal sale of medical cannabis in Virginia to adult-use retail,” they added.

The post Virginia House, Senate Approve Separate Weed Sales Bills appeared first on High Times.

The post Virginia House, Senate Approve Separate Weed Sales Bills appeared first on Paradise Found.

Officials in Virginia are exploring ways to deter drivers from getting behind the wheel after getting stoned, the latest effort by the commonwealth to smooth out its new adult-use cannabis law.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that the “the Virginia Crime Commission — an arm of the General Assembly tasked with studying issues of criminal law and making recommendations — [has] discussed some potential steps police and sheriff’s offices can use to crack down on driving while high,” and that the “commission is expected to meet Dec. 5 to draft their proposals for the legislative session that begins in January.”

“One thing under consideration at the commission’s Nov. 16 meeting: changing state law to allow roadside screening devices in which officers and deputies can have a driver swab his or her cheek in order to gather saliva to test for marijuana and other drugs,” the outlet reported this week. 

“Virginia officials said the ‘oral fluid tests’ under consideration to detect marijuana intoxication are similar to a ‘preliminary breath test’ — a roadside test for alcohol. The test results, while not admissible in court, can help determine when the cannabis was consumed, and can be combined with other factors to get probable cause for extensive blood testing,” the publication continued. 

Kristen Howard, the executive director of the Virginia Crime Commission, told the Virginian-Pilot that officers can “swab the inside of someone’s mouth, and you get a positive or negative and it just gives you some indicators.”

“It’s designed to hone in on the recentness of use — how many hours ago you used this drug,” Howard explained.

The moves come within a month of a survey from the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA), which showed that a high number of Virginians are comfortable toking and driving. 

According to the survey, roughly 23% reported consuming pot in the past three months and about 14% of drivers in the state said that they have driven high several times in the past year. 

The survey also showed that a third believe marijuana improves their ability to drive safely. 

Virginia officials sounded the alarm on the survey results.

“These results are worrying and underscore the General Assembly was right to direct the CCA to undertake a safe driving campaign,” said John Keohane, a board chair of the Cannabis Control Authority.

Jeremy Preiss, the CCA’s Acting Head and Chief Officer for Regulatory, Policy, and External Affairs, said that the agency must make the issue a priority.

“As a public safety and public health agency, the CCA currently has no greater priority than creating a well-funded, aggressive, and sustained campaign aimed at reducing the incidence of marijuana-impaired driving,” Preiss said. 

Virginia legalized recreational cannabis last year, becoming the first state in the south to do so. 

But that came under a Democratic governor, Ralph Northam. Republicans took back the governor’s mansion last year when Glenn Youngkin was elected. 

Youngkin said from the start that he has no interest in rolling back the marijuana law, but his election––as well as Republicans winning back control of the state House of Delegates––has stymied its implementation.

The Democratic-controlled state Senate passed a bill earlier this year to fast-track the launch of recreational pot sales, but the legislation was rejected in the House.  

Prior to taking office earlier this year, Youngkin spoke about his vision for the new cannabis program.

“When it comes to commercialization, I think there is a lot of work to be done. I’m not against it, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Youngkin said. “There are some nonstarters, including the forced unionization that’s in the current bill. There have been concerns expressed by law enforcement in how the gap in the laws can actually be enforced. Finally, there’s a real need to make sure that we aren’t promoting an anti-competitive industry. I do understand that there are preferences to make sure that all participants in the industry are qualified to do the industry well.”

The post Virginia Officials Consider Measures To Reduce Stoned Driving appeared first on High Times.

The post Virginia Officials Consider Measures To Reduce Stoned Driving appeared first on Paradise Found.

The governor of Virginia on Monday signed legislation aimed at easing access to the Commonwealth’s medical cannabis program.

Glenn Youngkin, the first-term Republican who took office earlier this year, signed a pair of bills, each identical to one another, that remove a requirement for patients to register with the Virginia Board of Pharmacy after receiving a certification from a medical provider. 

JM Pedini, NORML’s Development Director and the Executive Director of Virginia NORML, said that the new law will bring relief to patients in Virginia who have been frustrated by the delays accompanied by the registration with the Board of Pharmacy.

“These legislative improvements will bring great relief to the thousands of Virginians waiting to access the medical cannabis program,” said Pedini. “We hear from dozens of Virginians each week who are struggling with the registration process and frustrated by the 60-day wait to receive their approval from the Board of Pharmacy.” 

The new law “maintains the requirement that patients obtain written certification from a health care provider for medical cannabis,” but the elimination of the step involving the Board of Pharmacy should improve efficiency and access for thousands of medical cannabis patients in Virginia. 

According to NORML, Virginia has “currently over 47,000 [medical cannabis program] registrants, with an estimated 8,000 applicants still awaiting approval.”

Additionally, the measure “amends the definition of ‘cannabis oil’ by removing the requirement that only oil from industrial hemp be used in the formulation of cannabis oil.”

The medical cannabis legislation was among 700 bills signed into law by Youngkin, his office said Monday, adding that the governor took action “on a total of 841 bills sent to his desk during the 2022 General Assembly session.”

“Today marks another important step in a journey for the people of Virginia, one which started even before our nation’s founding. Every year the duly elected representatives of the people assemble to pass new laws on behalf of their constituencies, and I am honored to sign these 700 bills into law this year,” Youngkin said in a statement on Monday, 

“These bills are all bipartisan, and we can all be proud that together we’ve taken steps to make life easier for Virginians, make our Commonwealth’s economy more competitive, support law enforcement, protect the most vulnerable among us, increase access to health care, and take necessary steps toward making Virginia’s schools the absolute best in the nation.”

Youngkin’s first year in office marks the start of a new era for cannabis policy in Virginia, which became the first state in the southern United States to legalize recreational pot use for adults last year. 

But legalization arrived under different political circumstances in Virginia, with the bill passed by a Democratic-controlled General Assembly and signed into law by a Democratic governor, Ralph Northam.

Now, Youngkin has succeeded Northam, who was term-limited, and Republicans have re-claimed control of one chamber of the General Assembly.

That shifted landscape has brought uncertainty to the new cannabis law, particularly as it pertains to commercialization.

Youngkin said prior to taking office that he “will not seek to overturn the law on personal possession,” but he wavered on the matter of retail cannabis sales.

“When it comes to commercialization, I think there is a lot of work to be done. I’m not against it, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Youngkin said. “There are some nonstarters, including the forced unionization that’s in the current bill. There have been concerns expressed by law enforcement in how the gap in the laws can actually be enforced. Finally, there’s a real need to make sure that we aren’t promoting an anti-competitive industry. I do understand that there are preferences to make sure that all participants in the industry are qualified to do the industry well.”

Earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled state Senate passed a bill to have cannabis sales begin in September, but the measure went nowhere in the GOP-led House of Delegates. 

The post Virginia Governor Signs Legislation to Improve Medical Cannabis Access appeared first on High Times.

The post Virginia Governor Signs Legislation to Improve Medical Cannabis Access appeared first on Paradise Found.

Virginia adult-use cannabis law isn’t even a year old, but changes are likely afoot. 

Much has changed in the commonwealth since then-Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill making Virginia the first state in the south to legalize recreational cannabis. 

Virginia Republicans now control one-half of the legislature, and have one of their own in the governor’s mansion. As such, GOP lawmakers there have “drafted bills that would move up the start date for retail sales and get rid of a provision that would give licensing preference to people who’ve been convicted of marijuana crimes,” according to the Associated Press.

The AP said that they have “filed at least eight bills that call for amendments to the law that legalized adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and laid the groundwork for retail sales to begin in 2024.”

What that will ultimately mean for the new cannabis law remains unclear. But Republicans, including newly sworn in GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, have thus far said that they do not intend to undo legalization––despite most of the party being opposed to the effort to end the prohibition on pot last year. 

In an interview published last month, Youngkin said point-blank that he “will not seek to overturn the law on personal possession,” but he expressed less certainty about the regulation of cannabis sales.

“When it comes to commercialization, I think there is a lot of work to be done. I’m not against it, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Youngkin told Virginia Business. “There are some nonstarters, including the forced unionization that’s in the current bill. There have been concerns expressed by law enforcement in how the gap in the laws can actually be enforced. Finally, there’s a real need to make sure that we aren’t promoting an anti-competitive industry. I do understand that there are preferences to make sure that all participants in the industry are qualified to do the industry well.”

Northam signed the measure into law last spring and, since July 1, 2021, it has been legal for Virginia adults aged 21 and older to possess as much as an ounce of weed. But pot sales remain illegal under the law, and the newly created Cannabis Control Authority, the regulatory agency overseeing Virginia’s new cannabis industry, has said that legal sales will not begin before 2024.

The new cannabis law also included social justice provisions, with an aim toward expunging and re-sentencing previous low-level marijuana convictions.

“What this really means is that people will no longer be arrested or face penalties for simple possession that follow them and affect their lives,” Northam said after signing the bill into law last year. “We know that marijuana laws in Virginia and throughout this country have been disproportionately enforced against communities of color and low-income Virginians.”

But that, too, is an area where Republicans and Democrats in Virginia are at odds.

The Virginia Mercury reported last month that a committee composed of state Senators and House members began making recommendations to other lawmakers on a proposal to begin marijuana sales earlier than 2024. However, those committee members were unable to agree on re-sentencing for marijuana convictions, because they ran out of time.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that some of the bills offered up “focus on the resentencing process for marijuana-related offenses and record expungement.”

One bill introduced by a GOP member of the House of Delegates would nix “a provision that would give licensing preference to applicants who were convicted or related to someone who was convicted of a marijuana-related crime,” while maintaining “other portions of the social equity provision, such as giving preference to applicants who live in communities disproportionately impacted by drug law enforcement, or who graduated from a historically Black college or university in the commonwealth.”

The post Republican Lawmakers in Virginia Have Drafted New Cannabis Legislation appeared first on High Times.

The post Republican Lawmakers in Virginia Have Drafted New Cannabis Legislation appeared first on Paradise Found.

Adult-use cannabis sales could begin next year in Virginia, but lawmakers in the commonwealth remain at loggerheads over what to do about individuals currently incarcerated on pot-related charges. 

The Virginia Mercury reported that a committee of state Senate and House members “tasked with making recommendations for the legislative session that begins Wednesday concluded its work this week with a proposal to begin recreational sales in 2023—a year earlier than initially planned,” but those lawmakers “said they ran out of time to reach an agreement” on the subject of re-sentencing for cannabis convictions.

The current state of play in Virginia looks quite different than it did last spring, when a Democratic-controlled general assembly passed a bill that made Virginia the first state in the south to legalize recreational pot. 

Virginia’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill into law, hailing it as a new day for criminal justice in the commonwealth.

“What this really means is that people will no longer be arrested or face penalties for simple possession that follow them and affect their lives,” Northam said at the time. “We know that marijuana laws in Virginia and throughout this country have been disproportionately enforced against communities of color and low-income Virginians.”

Last week, as lawmakers convened in the capital city of Richmond, the GOP officially assumed control over one-half of the general assembly. And on Saturday, the Republican Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as the new governor of Virginia. 

The recommendation from the Cannabis Oversight Commission to begin cannabis sales next year came last week ahead of the opening of the legislative session.

Youngkin said in an interview earlier this month that he “will not seek to overturn the law on personal possession,” but the governor-elect—who defeated the Democrat Terry McAuliffe in November—balked on the subject of pot sales.

“When it comes to commercialization, I think there is a lot of work to be done. I’m not against it, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Youngkin told Virginia Business. “There are some nonstarters, including the forced unionization that’s in the current bill. There have been concerns expressed by law enforcement in how the gap in the laws can actually be enforced. Finally, there’s a real need to make sure that we aren’t promoting an anti-competitive industry. I do understand that there are preferences to make sure that all participants in the industry are qualified to do the industry well.”

The subject of how to handle individuals currently serving time for cannabis didn’t come up in that interview, nor was it addressed by the legislative committee last week.

The Virginia Mercury reported that the “Virginia Department of Corrections says 10 people are currently serving sentences in which the most serious offense was marijuana,” and that in “all of the cases, the people were convicted of transporting five or more pounds of marijuana into the state.”

“All 10 are expected to be released in the next six years, according to the department, which presented the data Monday to the assembly’s Cannabis Oversight Commission,” according to the report. “Another 560 people are serving sentences partially related to a marijuana offense but have also been found guilty of more serious offenses.”

In the interview with Virginia Business earlier this month, Youngkin did discuss the potential economic windfall from legalization, particularly for minority communities.

“I am all for opportunities for minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses [and] military-owned businesses,” he said. “We also have to make sure that they have the capabilities to compete and thrive in the industry. So, I think there’s work to be done. All of that will be on the table. Again, I don’t look to overturn the bill, but I think we need to make sure that it works.”

The post Lawmakers in Virginia Disagree on Cannabis Conviction Re-Sentencing appeared first on High Times.

The post Lawmakers in Virginia Disagree on Cannabis Conviction Re-Sentencing appeared first on Paradise Found.