RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Virginia’s two legislative chambers passed a recreational marijuana bill Saturday evening which will see the state open up adult use and legal dispensaries by 2024.
Details on the nearly 300-page bill were still being sussed out after the latest version was distributed only hours earlier. The successful effort comes after several versions were passed between the more progressive House and traditional Senate to make the new and final compromise. The vote also comes on the final day of the General Assembly’s annual legislative session.
“It’s been a lot of work to get here but I’d say we're on the path toward an equitable law to allow adults to use cannabis,” said Senator Adam Ebbin of Alexandria who has long championed legalization but faced pushed back under GOP leadership. Democrats took control of both chambers in 2020 and decriminalized last session; this effort is seen as a continuation of that effort.
The biggest hold up over the long-discussed bill centered on the time frame for the new law to take effect. While a state agency, Cannabis Control Authority, will be created this summer which will allow it to begin making regulations to help in the eventual distribution of licenses and give local grow operations time to get established, recreational marijuana and possession will not be legal until after Jan. 1, 2024.
Concerns about how ongoing prohibition will continue to impact minority communities was a top concern.
“Even the thought of business before justice is hard to stomach knowing some of my constituents are in jail right now while we are establishing a regulatory authority for businesses,” said Hampton Roads-area Delegate Cia Price, a Democrat, before abstaining from the vote. “If this bill was a true justice bill I would jump to vote yes.”
But its passage means, for now at least, that come Jan. 1, 2024, Virginians over the age of 21 will be allowed to buy marijuana products in stores and hold up to one ounce of flower or equivalent product and cultivate up to four plants for personal use.
Having too many plants will render a $250 civil penalty while having more than an ounce will lead to a $25 civil penalty. Having more than a pound will count as a felony.
The state will collect a 21% tax on all products sold in stores and localities will be able to add an additional three percent tax if they wish. Edible products will be maxed out at five milligrams per serving with no more than 50 milligrams per package. Forty percent of the funds will go to schools with the rest going between equity funds and other state needs.
Public consumption will still be forbidden and open container laws will apply for driving with pot in the car.
Another sticking point was how companies would be able to vertically integrate, controlling production as well as sales. The House was worried about how medical operators, legalized and opened in the last year, would have a leg up, but a compromise was met with money being contributed from those organizations to a Cannabis Equity Business Fund to support disadvantaged Virginians in starting their own businesses.
Many of the business-side details will fall under the power of the Cannabis Control Authority, but they’ll take some input from a new citizen-led committee, the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Board who will help ensure equity in the future market.
A seat on the board, as well as some of the licenses to sell and produce, will be reserved for those who have a history of marijuana offenses on their record. A state loan program, the Virginia Cannabis Equity Business Loan Fund, will also offer lending options for those impacted by marijuana’s prohibition in the face of traditional banks’ inability to loan money to the still federally-forbidden industry.