The incoming governor of Virginia says that while he\u2019s not interested in re-criminalizing marijuana possession, which became legal in the state last summer, he feels there\u2019s \u201cstill work to be done\u201d before he gets behind creating a market for commercial sales and production.<\/p>\n
Advocates have been closely following Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) as he prepares to take office later this month, with some expressing concerns that he may seek to interfere in the implementation of the cannabis legalization law<\/a> that Democratic lawmakers passed last year.<\/p>\n In an interview<\/a> with Virginia Business that was published on Friday, Youngkin made clear that he \u201cwill not seek to overturn the law on personal possession,\u201d but he\u2019s not making the same commitment with respect to cannabis commercialization.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not against it, but there\u2019s a lot of work to be done,\u201d he said, adding that there are \u201csome nonstarters\u201d in what Democrats passed, including provisions setting labor union requirements for marijuana businesses. He also cited \u201cconcerns expressed by law enforcement in how the gap in the laws can actually be enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n Youngkin added that \u201cthere\u2019s a real need to make sure that we aren\u2019t promoting an anti-competitive industry\u201d and \u201cthere are preferences to make sure that all participants in the industry are qualified to do the industry well.\u201d<\/p>\n A Virginia legislature marijuana oversight panel looked into issues like licensing and regulatory authority at a meeting last month<\/a>, and members voted to recommend expediting the timeline for launching retail sales by one year to January 2023.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether the full legislature will ultimately adopt that recommendation when members reconvene this month under new incoming Republican leadership in the House of Delegates and with a skeptical new governor in office.<\/p>\n As it stands under the law as enacted, sales are currently set to begin in 2024. But because of a reenactment clause that was tacked on, legislators are required to hold another vote on the legalization proposal during this year\u2019s session to allow commercial sales. Low-level possession and home cultivation already became legal last summer, and those provisions are not subject to reenactment.<\/p>\n JM Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, told Marijuana Moment that the incoming governor is correct when he says there\u2019s still much work to be done, but the activist blamed Democratic lawmakers for putting the reenactment clause into last year\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats missed a real opportunity to enact a regulatory framework for commercial sales in the 2021 General Assembly,\u201d Pedini, who also serves as NORML\u2019s national development director, said. \u201cThe reenactment clause was demanded by handful of legislators with purely political motivations, but ultimately it\u2019s Virginians who are losing points from this ill-timed punt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was difficult enough reaching consensus amongst Democrats on legalization in the 2021 session, and with a now divided government, the hills will be all that steeper to climb,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n In the new interview, Youngkin also said that he\u2019s \u201call for opportunities for minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses [and] military-owned businesses,\u201d without getting too specific on any changes he might wish to see to equity provisions in the legislation that passed last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also have to make sure that they have the capabilities to compete and thrive in the industry. So, I think there\u2019s work to be done,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of that will be on the table. Again, I don\u2019t look to overturn the bill, but I think we need to make sure that it works.\u201d<\/p>\n While there have been some concern among advocates that the incoming GOP-controlled House\u00a0might seek to interfere in the implementation<\/a>\u00a0of the legalization bill\u00a0that outgoing Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed into law in April<\/a>, certain GOP legislators have given assurances that they will not attempt to block sales.<\/p>\n House Speaker-designee Todd Gilbert (R) and Del. Glenn Davis (R) said in November that the current system\u2014where adults 21 and older can possess and cultivate cannabis for personal use but there\u2019s no commercial access to marijuana products\u2014isn\u2019t tenable in the long term<\/a>. But questions have been raised about what kinds of changes they might seek to make even if they won\u2019t repeal the program altogether.<\/p>\n Gilbert did say that Democrats \u201cdidn\u2019t do [legalization] the right way,\u201d but \u201cwe\u2019re going to have to fix all that and we\u2019re going to work with the Democratic Senate to fix all that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI imagine the roadmap that they laid out as to how that would occur, if they did it in the future, is going to change dramatically,\u201d he\u00a0said last month. \u201cBut obviously, we\u2019ve been left with that live grenade kind of rolling around and we need to fix it or else all we have is a black market.\u201d<\/p>\n When the legislature took up legalization last year, the reform measure passed along party lines, without a single Republican voting in favor of the proposal on the floor of the Senate or Assembly. At the time, both chambers were controlled by Democrats.<\/p>\n It was an\u00a0amendment offered by Northam<\/a> and adopted by the legislature that made it so personal possession and cultivation would be made legal for adults last July, rather than in 2024 as the bill originally stipulated.<\/p>\n For his part, Youngkin said in April that he\u2019s \u201cnever met anybody who habitually used marijuana and was successful.\u201d In May he described legalization<\/a>\u00a0as \u201canother problem that\u2019s going to be dumped at my feet\u201d should he be elected.<\/p>\n Though Republicans opposed last year\u2019s legalization bill, pushback by many GOP lawmakers centered on particular provisions, such a change by Northam that would\u2019ve allowed regulators to revoke a company\u2019s business license if it interfered with union organizing efforts or failed to pay prevailing wage, as Youngkin alluded to.<\/p>\n Hundreds Of New York Municipalities Will Allow Marijuana Businesses As Opt-Out Deadline Passes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Incoming Virginia GOP Governor Won\u2019t \u2018Overturn\u2019 Legal Marijuana Possession, But Casts Doubt On Sales<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The incoming governor of Virginia says that while he\u2019s not interested in re-criminalizing marijuana possession, which became legal in the state last summer, he feels there\u2019s \u201cstill work to be done\u201d before he gets behind creating a market for commercial sales and production. Advocates have been closely following Gov.-elect GlennContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52083,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52082\/revisions\/52083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Incoming Virginia GOP Governor Won\u2019t \u2018Overturn\u2019 Legal Marijuana Possession, But Casts Doubt On Sales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"