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MARIJUANA MOMENT
VIRGINIA GOP GOVERNOR VETOES MARIJUANA SALES LEGALIZATION BILL, ALONG WITH
SEPARATE MEASURE TO RESENTENCE PRIOR CANNABIS CONVICTIONS
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Social Equity Fee Revenue
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Separate Measure To Resentence Prior Cannabis Convictions
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POLITICS
VIRGINIA GOP GOVERNOR VETOES MARIJUANA SALES LEGALIZATION BILL, ALONG WITH
SEPARATE MEASURE TO RESENTENCE PRIOR CANNABIS CONVICTIONS
Published
5 days ago
on
March 28, 2024
By
Ben Adlin
After sending messages for months that he had no interest in moving forward with
Democratic-led plans to legalize retail marijuana sales in Virginia, Gov. Glenn
Youngkin (R) has now formally vetoed legal sales legislation sent to him by
lawmakers about a month ago along with a separate bill to provide resentencing
relief for people convicted of past cannabis crimes.
In a veto message issued on Thursday, the governor wrote that “the proposed
legalization of retail marijuana in the Commonwealth endangers Virginians’
health and safety.”
“States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and
adolescent’s health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime,
significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and
significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue,”
he claimed. “It also does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of
cannabis, nor guarantee product safety. Addressing the inconsistencies in
enforcement and regulation in Virginia’s current laws does not justify expanding
access to cannabis, following the failed paths of other states and endangering
Virginians’ health and safety.”
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developing dementia.
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Regarding the resentencing bill, the governor wrote: “This bill grants
eligibility to a significant number of violent felons who have already received
a full and fair hearing.” Other eligible individuals, he said, would include
people incarcerated for other manufacturing or distributing other drugs,
including fentanyl.
“Now is not the time to allow an imprudent resentencing process that undermines
public safety,” Youngkin said.
If the resentencing bill had become law, many marijuana-related criminal cases
would have needed to be resentenced by the end of the year. People whose
sentences for other crimes were enhanced because of a prior marijuana
conviction, meanwhile, would receive hearings by April 1, 2025.
As for legal sales, even before the legislative session kicked off this year,
some supporters predicted Youngkin would veto any retail marijuana measure that
arrived on his desk on principle, regardless of what provisions it contained.
Others believed it was possible to craft a broadly appealing bill that could
either win the governor’s approval or secure enough bipartisan support to
overcome a potential veto.
Ultimately, however, votes for the legislation fell mostly along party lines,
suggesting that Youngkin’s veto will likely stand because there isn’t enough
support to override him in the Senate or House of Delegates.
Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults is already legal
in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in
2021. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor’s office
later that year, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory
framework for retail sales. Since then, illicit stores have sprung up to meet
consumer demand.
Hope was high among supporters last year that Democrats retaking control of both
chambers of the state legislature would breathe new life into the retail sales
legalization effort. But despite the party’s victories in November, the bill
still faced an obstacle in Youngkin.
The governor wrote in his 4-page veto message Thursday: “Attempting to rectify
the error of decriminalizing marijuana by establishing a safe and regulated
marketplace is an unachievable goal. The more prudent approach would be to
revisit the issue of discrepancies in enforcement, not compounding the risks and
endangering Virginians’ health and safety with greater market availability.”
The bill’s lead sponsors, Del. Paul Krizek (D) and Sen. Aaron Rouse (D), said in
a press release that the governor’s veto was “dangerous and irresponsible” as
well as “reckless and negligent.”
“Governor Youngkin’s dismissive stance towards addressing Virginia’s cannabis
sales dilemma is unacceptable,” Rouse said. “Public servants are obligated to
tackle pressing issues, regardless of their origin or culpability. They cannot
cherry-pick which problems to address.”
Krizek said in the statement that the governor’s “failure to act allows an
already thriving illegal cannabis market to persist, fueling criminal activity
and endangering our communities.”
“This veto squandered a vital opportunity to safeguard Virginians,” he said,
“and will only exacerbate the proliferation of illicit products, posing greater
risks to our schools and public safety.”
In a separate email to Marijuana Moment, Krizek said that despite the veto, the
bill passed by the legislature still marked progress for Virginia. And he
signaled he’d again support the reform next session.
“We really did craft a wonderful piece of bicameral legislation that even
garnered bipartisan support, albeit not as many members as I would have
expected, but that was probably due to Governor’s antipathy toward it,” he said.
“So, we have a bill we can introduce next session that will only need some minor
adjustments (I did see some small improvements we can make) and gives us a head
start.”
Legalization advocates in the commonwealth greeted the sales measure veto with
disappointment but also vowed to continue working to enact the reform.
“Governor Youngkin has just shown Virginians exactly how out of touch he is with
the widely-accepted science and policy research on cannabis in the US,” JM
Pedini, NORML’s development director and executive director for Virginia NORML,
told Marijuana Moment in an emailed statement.
“Virginians deserve better than this head-in-the-sand approach to lawmaking from
their elected officials,” they said. “The only protection Youngkin’s veto
provides is to the illicit market that has ballooned during his time office.”
Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, said that
Youngkin clearly “has no regard for the position of over 60 percent of his
constituents in this state.”
“This is an issue that has bipartisan support across the state from the people
that put the elected officials to represent them into office. This is a classic
case, yet again, where the people have little to no actual representation,” he
told Marijuana Moment. “It is a shame that this outcome has been distilled down
to a partisan fight between the Governor and the General Assembly and the ones
that are affected by it are all of the constituents.”
Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of the group Marijuana Justice, said the
veto “has caused the delay of tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenue, and other
opportunities a regulated cannabis market provides.”
“This bill would have addressed the intergenerational harms cannabis prohibition
has brought to our communities by reinvesting 60 percent of tax revenue back
into those communities,” told Marijuana Moment. “We will be back next year to
ensure Virginia’s cannabis market is just and we welcome all to get involved and
participate.”
With his veto of the resentencing bill, Wise added, Youngkin “is continuing a
legacy of injustice by allowing people with past marijuana offenses to remain in
prison, jail and probation even though with convictions that are now
decriminalized.”
“Even without a regulated market, we should be able to legislate reasonably for
people serving time for what is now a legal substance,” she said.
Ahead of the veto, the governor had hinted at his intentions. About a week
earlier, Youngkin told a reporter: “Anybody who thinks I’m going to sign that
legislation must be smoking something.”
Some had higher hopes for Youngkin when he was first elected in 2021.
“With Governor-elect Youngkin previously stating that he would uphold the will
of the people, and focus on creating a ‘rip-roaring economy,’ we are fully
confident that he and the people of Virginia will continue to make progress,”
Jim Cacioppo, the CEO, chairman and founder of multistate cannabis company Jushi
Holdings, said in a statement at the time.
In an email to Marijuana Moment after the veto, however, Jushi’s chief strategy
director, Trent Woloveck, described Youngkin as “a sanctimonious culture
warrior.”
“His reasons for vetoing and the mischaracterization of the facts continue to
illustrate his unwillingness to understand the everyday lives and needs of his
constituents and his favor for a select few,” Woloveck wrote. “His push to be a
sanctimonious culture warrior shows through time and time again as he prepares
to seek higher office in the future. This industry will continue to push forward
and be on the right side of history in the commonwealth long after the
governor’s legacy has gone up in smoke.”
The governor this session has also greeted less controversial marijuana reforms
coldly. Earlier this month, for example, he vetoed a separate proposal that
would have prevented the state from using marijuana alone as evidence of child
abuse or neglect despite the measure winning unanimous or near-unanimous
approval in votes on the Senate floor.
Following that action, Del. Rae Cousins (D), the bill’s sponsor, accused the
governor of “turning his back on the needs of our children and neglecting their
well-being by encouraging the courts to move forward with unnecessary family
separations.”
“We have seen how this is playing out in our courts; with Black and Brown
families receiving harsher mandates from our judges for legal and responsible
substance use,” the lawmaker said. “Family separation has devastating effects
both on our communities and on the well-being of children, and by vetoing this
legislation, Governor Youngkin is telling our courts that they can continue to
unnecessarily tear children away from their parents.”
In January, at the time of his State of the Commonwealth address, the governor
said he didn’t have “any interest” in moving forward with the Democrat-led
cannabis plans. Late last month, his press secretary reiterated those comments
in a message to Marijuana Moment.
“I would refer you back to the Governor’s comments during the gaggle after the
State of the Commonwealth,” Christian Martinez said in an email, “where he said
he doesn’t have a lot of interest in pressing forward with marijuana
legalization.”
At one point earlier this session, however, it appeared the retail cannabis bill
could become part of a grand deal between Youngkin and legislative Democrats. In
December, Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas (D) alluded to a compromise
involving a sports stadium project the governor supported. But that deal never
materialized, and Democrats left the governor’s proposed arena plan out of
budget legislation. This week, the little remaining hope for the stadium deal
fell through.
One day before his cannabis veto, Youngkin said in a statement that the stadium
project had “gone up in smoke” after the city of Alexandria halted negotiations
around the proposal—a possible nod to the would-be deal’s implications for his
support of the marijuana measure.
Krizek had previously used the same phrase around his hopes that Youngkin would
sign the legalization bill. “As those great philosophers Tommy Chong and Cheech
Marin would say, ‘It’s up in smoke,’” he said earlier this month.
Supporters of the sales bill, including sponsors in both the House and Senate,
have repeatedly said the bill would not create a cannabis market in Virginia but
instead regulate the state’s existing illicit market, which some estimates have
valued at nearly $3 billion.
The legislation sent to Youngkin would have begun licensing marijuana businesses
later this year, with sales slated to kick off on May 1, 2025. Sales to adults
21 and older of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana flower would be allowed, with
purchases taxed at 11.625 percent. Local governments could ban marijuana
establishments, but only with the support of local voters.
Here’s what Virginia’s lawmaker-passed retail sales legislation would have done:
* Retail sales could begin as of May 1, 2025.
* Adults would 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.
* A state tax of 11.625 percent would apply to the retail sale of any cannabis
product. Of that, 8 percent would go to the state, local governments would
get 2.5 percent and 1.125 percent would fund schools.
* The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would oversee licensing and
regulation of the new industry. Its board of directors would have the
authority to control possession, sale, transportation, distribution, delivery
and testing of marijuana.
* Local governments could ban marijuana establishments, but only if voters
first approve an opt-out referendum.
* Locations of retail outlets could not be within 1,000 feet of another
marijuana retailer.
* Cultivators would be regulated by space devoted to marijuana cultivation,
known as canopy size. Both indoor and outdoor marijuana cultivation would be
allowed, though only growers in lower tiers—with lower limits on canopy
size—could grow plants outside. Larger growers would need to cultivate plants
indoors. Secure greenhouses would qualify as indoor cultivation.
* Only direct, face-to-face transactions would be permitted. The legislation
would prohibit the use of other avenues, such as vending machines,
drive-through windows, internet-based sales platforms and delivery services.
* Existing medical marijuana providers that enter the adult-use market could
apply to open up to five additional retail establishments, which would need
to be colocated at their existing licensed facilities.
* Serving sizes would be capped at 10 milligrams THC, with no more than 100 mg
THC per package.
* No person could be granted or hold an interest in more than five total
licenses, not including transporter licenses.
* People with convictions for felonies or crimes involving moral turpitude
within the past seven years would be ineligible to apply for licensing, as
would employees of police or sheriff’s departments if they’re responsible for
enforcement of the penal, traffic or motor vehicle laws of the commonwealth.
* An equity-focused microbusiness program would grant licenses to entities at
least two-thirds owned and directly controlled by eligible applicants, which
include people with past cannabis misdemeanors, family members of people with
past convictions, military veterans, individuals who’ve lived at least three
of the past five years in a “historically economically disadvantaged
community,” people who’ve attended schools in those areas and individuals who
received a federal Pell grant or attended a college or university where at
least 30 percent of students are eligible for Pell grants.
* “Historically economically disadvantaged community” is an area that has
recorded marijuana possession offenses at or above 150 percent of the
statewide average between 2009 and 2019.
* Tax revenue from the program would first cover the costs of administering and
enforcing the state’s cannabis system. After that, 60 percent of remaining
funds would go toward supporting the state’s Cannabis Equity Reinvestment
Fund, 25 percent would fund substance use disorder treatment and prevention,
10 percent would go to pre-K programs for at-risk children and 5 percent
would fund a public health and awareness campaign.
* Adults could also share up to 2.5 ounces with other adults without financial
remuneration, though gray-market “gifting” of marijuana as part of another
transaction would be punishable as a Class 2 misdemeanor and a Class 1
misdemeanor on second and subsequent offenses.
* A number of other new criminal penalties would be created. Knowingly selling
or giving marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia to someone under 21, for
example, would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail
and a maximum $2,500 fine, as would knowingly selling cannabis to someone
reasonably believed to be intoxicated. It would also be a Class 1 misdemeanor
to advertise the sale of marijuana paraphernalia to people under 21.
* Knowingly obtaining marijuana on behalf of someone under 21 would be a Class
1 misdemeanor.
* People under 21 who possess or use marijuana, or attempt to obtain it, would
be subject to a civil penalty of no more than $25 and ordered to enter a
substance use disorder treatment and/or education program.
* Illegal cultivation or manufacture of marijuana, not including legal
homegrow, would be a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to five years
imprisonment and a $2,500 fine.
* People could process homegrown marijuana into products such as edibles, but
butane extraction or the use of other volatile solvents would be punishable
as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Other cannabis-related bills still before the governor include a measure to
protect public sector workers from employment discrimination based on lawful
medical marijuana use.
A sales bill did advance through the Democratic-controlled Senate last session,
but it stalled in committee in the House, which at the time had a GOP majority.
> Congressional Lawmakers Push Attorney General To Issue ‘Overdue’ Marijuana
> Guidance, Saying Ongoing ‘Legal Limbo’ Is “Unacceptable’
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
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Ben Adlin
Ben Adlin, a senior editor at Marijuana Moment, has been covering cannabis and
other drug policy issues professionally since 2011. He was previously a senior
news editor at Leafly, an associate editor at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and
a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. He lives in Washington State.
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