Virginia Hemp Groups Say Governor’s Marijuana Sales Veto Is An ‘Opportunity’

A coalition of hemp businesses that asked Virginia’s governor to veto legislation to legalize recreational marijuana sales before she did so this week says the move presents an “opportunity” to craft better cannabis policy.

The Cannabis Small Business Association said in a press release on Tuesday that while its members support the idea of creating a “well-regulated adult-use cannabis market,” they were concerned that the now-vetoed bills would have “left Virginia’s existing small hemp operators and family-owned cannabis businesses without a viable path forward.”

“The veto is not a conclusion,” CSBA’s release said. “It is an opportunity.”

Days before Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) vetoed the cannabis commercialization legislation, CSBA, hemp companies and major alcohol retailer Total Wine & More sent the governor a letter asking her to do so and then “revisit” the issue in the 2027 session after “thorough stakeholder engagement and economic policy expert input.”

The main thrust of the legislation was to create a framework for legal and regulated sales of adult-use marijuana, but provisions inserted at the last minute before the proposal was sent to the governor’s desk last month would have also made significant changes to Virginia’s rules for hemp.

In particular, the final bill would have made it so only hemp products with no more than 2 milligrams of total THC per package would be legal.

The letter from CSBA and its allies also raised concerns about the timelines in the marijuana legislation for the launch of the legal market as well as what it called the “expedited enforcement” of hemp restrictions, which it said together offer “limited realistic plant-touching opportunities for small and independent businesses” and “could prove to be devastating to aspiring and existing, law-abiding operators.”

“Across the commonwealth, farmers, manufacturers and retailers have invested significant time and resources in reliance on changing laws over the past,” the groups wrote. “These enterprises support local economies, create jobs and provide consumers with access to lawful, regulated products. As the policy environment evolves, good-faith operators must not be displaced without a clear and practical path forward.”

“Rather than prohibiting existing regulated product categories or excluding current participants, we encourage solutions that establish a safe adult-use market while maintaining continuity for compliant businesses. This means creating realistic, accessible pathways—by preserving the existing regulated hemp market, establishing transition mechanisms into the adult-use framework, and allowing both to coexist in a complementary and safe manner. A market structure that gives advantages to large, well-capitalized corporate operators over Virginia’s existing small businesses would undermine the very communities this legislation is meant to serve.”

Barbara Biddle, who serves as president of CSBA and is also the founder of District Hemp Botanicals, stressed in a press release following Spanberger’s veto that the group “fully supports adult-use cannabis legalization in Virginia.”

“What we could not support was this particular legislation and the consequences it would have had for small businesses and existing lawful operators who built this industry from the ground up,” she said. “We are grateful that Governor Spanberger took those concerns seriously. This veto is not a setback for legalization. It is a reset—and an invitation to do this right, together.”

JM Pedini, development director for the advocacy group NORML and executive director for Virginia NORML, pushed back against the notion that the veto was ultimately good for cannabis policymaking.

“Thousands of Virginians sent emails in support of these bills, but in the end their voices were outweighed by a handful of corporations led by a major alcohol retailer with a financial stake in preserving Virginia’s unregulated intoxicating THC market,” Pedini told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.

Looking ahead to 2027, CSBA said for its part that it will push for a cannabis regulatory framework that:

• Establishes clear, accessible licensing pathways for Virginia’s existing small hemp operators and independent cannabis businesses
• Provides workable transition timelines that allow compliant businesses to adapt without facing sudden financial collapse
• Builds a market structure that reflects Virginia’s entrepreneurial community—not one that consolidates early advantage among large, out-of-state operators
• Prioritizes consumer safety and market integrity alongside small business inclusion, treating these goals as complementary rather than competing
• Engages a broad coalition of stakeholders—farmers, manufacturers, retailers, consumers, and community members—throughout the drafting process

Meanwhile, however, the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products looms.

Hemp derivatives with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill that President Donald Trump signed during his first term in office. But late last year, Trump signed new legislation containing provisions that will redefine hemp to make it so only products with 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container will remain legal after November 12.

Several members of Congress have filed legislation to delay or alter the scheduled ban, but so far those proposals have not gained traction with leadership in the House of Representatives or Senate.

Back in Virginia, 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.

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.

Last week, Spanberger signed separate legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past cannabis convictions.

Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) and Del. Paul Krizek (D), who sponsored the recreational cannabis sales legalization bills, criticized the governor’s veto on Tuesday, as did marijuana reform groups.

Aird and Krizek 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.

Spanberger, for her part, responded to earlier 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.

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 is 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 is proposing 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.

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.

Read the full letter asking the governor to veto the marijuana sales bill below:

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