Politics
Virginia Governor Explains Marijuana Veto, Saying She Worried About ‘Rushed Timeline’ And Too Many Dispensaries
Virginia’s governor is seeking to explain why she vetoed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana sales in the state this week—saying she supports the overall reform but took issue with some of the details in the proposal that lawmakers sent her, including what she called a “rushed timeline” to launch the legal cannabis market and “far more stores across Virginia” than she thinks are appropriate.
“I continue to support the creation of a retail marijuana market,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) said in an interview with WRIC-TV on Wednesday, pointing to current state law that allows adults to possess and grow cannabis for personal use but provides them no place to legally purchase it. “That’s an obvious bridge that we need to gap, but we need to do it with thoughtful, focused, implementable legislation.”
Lawmakers passed the cannabis sales bills in March, but the governor then suggested changes to the legalization proposal—including delaying the start date for sales by six months, increasing taxes and instituting new criminal penalties for cannabis consumers. The legislature last month declined to take up the amendments during a one-day reconvened session, however, effectively rejecting them. Spanberger then issued a veto on Tuesday.
In the new interview, the governor said her proposed amendments were “extraordinarily important for our ability to implement cannabis retail market, to do it in a thoughtful, measured way that learns from the mistakes of other states.”
Spanberger has repeatedly responded to criticism of her cannabis amendments from the bill sponsors and advocates by saying the suggested changes came after she spoke to the leaders of other states that have already implemented adult-use marijuana markets.
A spokesperson for Spanberger was not able to provide a list of other governors she talked to about cannabis in response to a question from Marijuana Moment this week, however.
In any case, Spanberger told WRIC that she wants to use other states’ experiences “to make sure that we are setting the market up to be a durable one” in Virginia.
“The notion that between July and January we would be able to build out all of the rules of the road for legal recreational marijuana market and have doors open to sales in January is a rushed timeframe and one that would not necessarily allow us to learn from the mistakes of other states who have spoken to the fact that a rushed timeline is challenged,” she argued.
The governor also expressed concerns that under the now-vetoed legislation’s provisions, the state would be “moving in place aggressively with far more stores across Virginia, without the ability for potential retailers to be able to grow in some level of expertise and make sure that the market is meeting the actual demand.”
Spanberger said lawmakers “chose not to entertain any of my amendments,” though it is the case that she sent them back an entire substitute rewrite of the legislation instead of proposing specific discrete changes they could consider individually.
“That is absolutely their prerogative, but it is also my prerogative as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the one who will be tasked with setting up a successful or a unsuccessful marijuana market to ensure that we are getting it right. And it was their prerogative to reject and not even take under consideration any of my amendments, and so that puts us back in a place where we get to continue the conversation.”
“It’s important we have a retail marijuana market, because again, the gray area is not one that is long-term tenable, but we have to get it right,” she said. “I look forward to partnering with members of the General Assembly to do that, and I hope that they recognize that most important to me is to make sure that we get it right—set it up to be durable and successful, ensure the rules of the road are clear, that individuals who might be purchasing know what they are purchasing and what they are consuming, that it takes into consideration public health, and particularly the safety and health of our kids.”
“Those are my core priorities, and those will continue to be my core priorities as we are working on a bill that will pass and that I will ultimately and eventually sign,” Spanberger said.
Prior to vetoing the cannabis commerce bill, the governor did sign separate legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past cannabis convictions.
Personal marijuana possession and home cultivation of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2021, but then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) twice vetoed bills to provide consumers with a way to legally purchase regulated adult-use cannabis.
Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D), and Del. Paul Krizek (D), the sponsors of the legalization bills, had urged colleagues to vote against the governor’s amendments last month—even if that meant risking a veto from Spanberger when the legislation returned to her desk, which has now occurred.
Lawmakers will now have to start the push for reform over again with new bills in the 2027 session.
Here are the other key details of the cannabis bills—SB 542 and HB 642—as approved by lawmakers and with the governor’s suggested amendments:
- Lawmakers voted to allow adults to be able to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in a single transaction, or up to an equivalent amount of other cannabis products as determined by regulators. That would represent an increase from the limit in current law of 1 ounce. The governor, however, wanted the amount increased to only 2 ounces.
- Under the legislature’s plan, legal sales could begin on January 1, 2027, but the governor proposed to push that back to July 1, 2027.
- Lawmakers voted to impose an excise tax of 6 percent on cannabis sales as well as a 5.3 percent retail sales and use tax, while allowing municipalities to set an additional local tax of up to 3.5 percent. The governor’s plan was largely the same, though it would have increased the excise tax to 8 percent starting on July 1, 2029.
- Under the legislation as approved by lawmakers, revenue would have been distributed to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund (30 percent), early childhood education (40 percent), the Department of Behavioral & Developmental Health Services (25 percent) and public health initiatives (5 percent). The governor, however, wanted to put all revenue into the general fund while earmarking it “for purposes such as early childhood education, behavioral health, public health awareness, prevention, treatment, and recovery services, workforce development, reentry, indigent criminal defense, and targeted reinvestment in historically disadvantaged communities.”
- The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would have overseen licensing and regulation of the new industry, and would have also taken on oversight of hemp, which is currently under the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
- Local governments could not have opted out of allowing marijuana businesses to operate in their area.
- Delivery services would have been allowed.
- Serving sizes would have been capped at 10 milligrams THC, with no more than 100 mg THC per package.
- The governor proposed to make public marijuana use a class 4 criminal misdemeanor instead of civil violation punishable by a $25 fine as under current law. She also wanted to make possessing cannabis by people under the age of 21 a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable with a mandatory minimum fine of $500 or 50 hours of community service, as well as the suspension of drivers licenses for at least six months. Illegally selling or distributing 50 pounds or more of marijuana would have been a class 2 felony punishable by life in prison.
- The governor sought to eliminate support for the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund.
- Existing medical cannabis operators could have entered the adult-use market if they pay a licensing conversion fee that was set at $10 million.
- Cannabis businesses would have had to establish labor peace agreements with workers.
- As passed by lawmakers, the bill would have directed a legislative commission to study adding on-site consumption licenses and microbusiness cannabis event permits that would allow licensees to conduct sales at venues like farmers markets or pop-up locations, but the governor proposed to remove that language.
A coalition of cannabis reform organizations sent the governor a letter this month urging her not to veto the sales legalization legislation even though her amendments were rejected.
“Together, these bills address the real issues surrounding cannabis in the Commonwealth today: an already-existing, unregulated marijuana market operating openly across the state while consumers, communities, and law enforcement are left without the protections of a legal framework,” the groups wrote.
“Let’s be clear: these bills do not create a marijuana market in Virginia. That market already exists,” the letter said. “What these bills do is replace today’s predatory and unaccountable illicit operators with a regulated marketplace, enforceable rules, oversight, product safeguards, age verification, and the strict consumer safety standards already in use for Virginia medical cannabis.”
The letter was signed by Virginia NORML, Marijuana Justice, Virginia Cannabis Association, Marijuana Policy Project and other groups.
Separately, a coalition of hemp businesses that joined with a major alcohol retailer in asking Spanberger to veto the marijuana bill before she did so said the move presents an “opportunity” to craft better cannabis policy.
Meanwhile, the governor signed several other reform bills last month—including measures to protect the parental rights of marijuana consumers and allow patients to access medical cannabis in hospitals.
