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Virginia lawmakers advanced a handful of drug policy bills this week—including measures to legalize commercial cannabis sales in the commonwealth, seal records related to marijuana and begin planning access to psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans.
The legal cannabis sales legislation is now set to be considered on the floors of both the Senate and the House of Delegates.
On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved the legal sales bill, HB 2485 from Del. Paul Krizek (D), on a 13–7 vote, sending it next to the chamber floor. That followed an earlier subcommittee meeting in which members favorably reported the bill on a 5–3 vote.
A Senate version of the bill, meanwhile, passed out of committee on Tuesday.
If enacted, the legislation would allow adults 21 and older to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from regulated, state-licensed retailers. Sales would begin no earlier than May 1, 2026, though regulators at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority could begin issuing business licenses in September of this year.
Purchases of adult-use marijuana would be taxed at up to 11.625 percent. Municipal governments could ban marijuana establishments locally, but only with the support of voters. Possession and home cultivation of marijuana is already legal in the state.
Last year the legislature passed a nearly identical legal sales proposal, but it was later vetoed by Gov, Glenn Youngkin (R). It’s widely expected that even if the reintroduced bill passes out of the legislature, Youngkin will once again veto it.
Earlier in the day, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 10–4 to advance a broad bill to seal a variety of criminal records, including “all possession of marijuana charges and convictions.”
That bill, SB 1466 from Sen. Scott Surovell (D), would also revise the state’s record-sealing process around cannabis paraphernalia crimes.
An amendment to the legislation adopted on Tuesday in the committee’s Resources Subcommittee moved the enactment date of the proposal to July 1, 2026, which staff said was intended to allow Virginia State Police to implement the change.
“I’m concerned about this delayed enactment,” Surovell said at the subcommittee hearing, adding that the state police never talked to him about the change. “I mean, there’s 1.6 million people waiting for relief on this, and the system’s set to go live.”
He eventually agreed to let the legislation move forward with the amendment after the panel noted there was still time left in the state’s short 30-day session to make further adjustments to the bill.
The full Senate committee also unanimously approved another drug-related bill, SB 1101, which, as introduced by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D), would have created a fund to support clinical trials involving veterans and FDA-designated “breakthrough therapies,” including psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA.
In a Health and Human Resources Subcommittee hearing earlier, lawmakers adopted a substitute version of the bill that removed references to the fund, leaving only a portion of Hashmi’s proposal that would establish a six-member state advisory council to study and make further recommendations about the therapies, potentially in advance of a broader compassionate use program.
A report from that council would be due to lawmakers and the governor by December 1, 2026.
As for the push to legalize commercial cannabis sales in the state, the proposal from Krizek and Sen. Aaron Rouse (D) incorporates compromises made between stakeholder last legislative session.
Here’s what Virginia’s reintroduced marijuana sales legislation, SB 970 and HB 2485, would do:
Retail sales could begin as of May 1, 2026.
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 tax of up to 11.625 percent would apply to the retail sale of any cannabis product. That would include a state retail and use tax of 1.125 percent on top of a new marijuana-specific tax of 8 percent. Local governments could levy an additional 2.5 percent.
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 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.
A “historically economically disadvantaged community” is defined as 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.
In addition to rejecting legal sales last session, Youngkin also blocked more minor cannabis reforms. He vetoed a separate proposal, for example, that would have prevented the state from considering marijuana use 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.”
Separately, last April, Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Shelton said her agency had received a sufficient number of reports of minors getting sick from cannabis products that the commonwealth would create a “special surveillance system” to track the issue.
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