Virginia bill to create marijuana market passes first hurdle

The aim, its backers say, is to keep the issue in front of the public.

Senate Bill 970 is sponsored this year, as last, by state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. The measure details over 82 single-spaced pages a system of seed to point of sale tracking of marijuana with the basic aim of keeping it out of the hands of young people.

The Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee voted 8-7 to send the bill on to the full state Senate, with all eight Democrats in favor and seven Republicans opposed. The Senate last year passed essentially the same bill on a 21-18 party-line vote; the House of Delegates on a 51-47 party-line split.

Youthful Virginians’ mental and physical health was the focus of opponents of the bill, who added that marijuana is a much more potent intoxicant than it was years ago.

“This is exactly what we’re trying to get at, to ensure that these products are not getting in the hands of our children,” Rouse said.

He said the bill would allow regulators to ensure that products that products are safe and that the levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary intoxicant in marijuana, are not excessive.

Those protections are unavailable in an illegal market that’s estimated to amount to several billion dollars a year in Virginia, Rouse said.

In addition, he said, as stores selling THC products are already popping up across Virginia, the bill would help police and sheriff’s departments know how to handle these.

In his State of the Commonwealth speech last Monday, Youngkin reiterated his opposition to a legalizing a retail market for marijuana.

“Let’s work together on other issues where we can find common ground,” he told legislators. He called on them instead to create a single commission to oversee the varieties of gambling now allowed in Virginia.

When he vetoed last year’s bill, Youngkin said “the proposed legalization of retail marijuana in the Commonwealth endangers Virginians’ health and safety.”

He said states that set up legal retail markets have seen children’s and teenagers’ health suffer. He added that Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington state reported more cannabis-related calls to poison centers and more emergency room visits for cannabis consumption.

“Marijuana is a drug … the potency level of THC is up 99%,” Tom Intorcio of the Virginia Catholic Conference said Friday, adding that marijuana has been linked to mental health concerns and a digestive system disorder called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome in youth.

Todd Gathje, of the Family Foundation of Virginia, said the Blue Ridge Poison Control Center has reported a 40% increase in calls involving children who consumed edible products since Virginia legalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana in 2021.

The only way to obtain an ounce has been to grow a small number of plants or through a sale that is illegal in Virginia.

Rouse’s bill, and a version that Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, wants to move through the House of Delegates, would cap the number of stores that could operate in Virginia at 350.

It would limit the amount of marijuana any store could sell an individual to 2.5 ounces and increase the increase the amount of marijuana that Virginians could possess legally to that level, as well.

The bill would levy a tax of 8% on marijuana sales, which would come on top of a partial state sales tax levy.

Rouse said that would likely generate $400 million a year in tax revenue.

The bill says localities could hold a local referendum to bar stores from opening.

Stores and cultivators would have to be licensed and would be responsible for detailed reports to ensure that no marijuana moves out of the regulated channels.

The bill would allow licensed stores to begin selling marijuana after May 1, 2026. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would have to set regulation and a seed-to-sale tracking system by the end of 2025.