{"id":60753,"date":"2023-01-16T06:54:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T14:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/01\/16\/virginia-lawmakers-consider-updating-marijuana-and-hemp-product-laws-in-2023-session\/"},"modified":"2023-01-16T17:45:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T01:45:35","slug":"virginia-lawmakers-consider-updating-marijuana-and-hemp-product-laws-in-2023-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/01\/16\/virginia-lawmakers-consider-updating-marijuana-and-hemp-product-laws-in-2023-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Lawmakers Consider Updating Marijuana And Hemp Product Laws In 2023 Session"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird that it\u2019s legal to possess it but you can\u2019t sell it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a sleek new store called Cannabist in Richmond\u2019s Carytown shopping district, anyone with an easy-to-obtain medical cannabis card can buy a full range of marijuana products strongly regulated by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.<\/p>\n

Right across the street, a vape shop has a sign advertising largely unregulated delta-8, which also gets users high but doesn\u2019t run afoul of current marijuana laws because it\u2019s derived from hemp plants.<\/p>\n

A grocery store a short distance away offers a variety of milder CBD products that don\u2019t have intoxicating effects but also come from hemp.<\/p>\n

For those who prefer a more DIY approach, it\u2019s now legal to grow up to four marijuana plants at home. You just have to find seeds, which remain illegal to sell.<\/p>\n

And even though it\u2019s now legal to possess small amounts of pot, there\u2019s still no way to legally buy real-deal marijuana for purely recreational use.<\/p>\n

Even in the eyes of many legislators who write the state\u2019s laws, Virginia\u2019s stance on cannabis is more than a little bit confusing and illogical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think by and large most of the people would like to get it straight. We haven\u2019t done it,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax. \u201cIt\u2019s weird that it\u2019s legal to possess it but you can\u2019t sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearing up Virginia\u2019s stance on marijuana is expected to be a major topic of discussion in the General Assembly session that began last week, but it\u2019s unclear if the two parties, which are sharing power in the state\u2019s divided government, will come to any major agreements. There are also unanswered questions about whether Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a devout Christian widely thought to be considering a presidential run, has any interest in signing legislation that might allow future opponents to tag him as a legal weed guy.<\/p>\n

Asked last week whether he would sign a bill creating a retail marijuana market in Virginia, Youngkin dodged.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we\u2019re very focused on making sure the enforcement and consumer protection laws are straightened out with regards to hemp and delta-8<\/a>, and we\u2019re seeing products on shelves that are being mislabeled, and we\u2019re seeing products that are targeted towards children,\u201d Youngkin told reporters at the Capitol. \u201cThat\u2019s the bill I\u2019m most focused on. I haven\u2019t seen any other bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

JM Pedini, executive director of pro-legalization group Virginia NORML, said the legislature can either find a way forward on retail sales for adult use or \u201cchoose to continue ceding control of cannabis in the commonwealth to unlicensed, unregulated operators.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf public safety is an actual priority for either chamber, then they will approve legislation to begin sales at licensed dispensaries as soon as possible,\u201d Pedini said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Left with this mess\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Multiple Republican legislators have filed bills to establish retail marijuana sales<\/a> starting in 2024 or 2025, but House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, says he\u2019s not sure what the General Assembly will do.<\/p>\n

Gilbert blamed Democrats, who couldn\u2019t agree on the rules for a retail market when they legalized marijuana in 2021 a few months before losing much of their policymaking power in that year\u2019s elections, for doing a sloppy job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just legalized it and walked away and said, \u2018Oh, we\u2019ll come back and do that later.\u2019 Which is just an absurd way to go about making public policy,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cAnd here we are left with this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert said House Republicans will continue discussing the issue, but he said they\u2019re wary of rushing forward with a poorly thought-out bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing for me is whether we\u2019re going to spend a lot of time churning through this issue if we don\u2019t know what the governor would intend to do with it,\u201d the speaker said.<\/p>\n

When Democrats were discussing how to set up legal marijuana sales, one point of contention was to what extent the state should make amends to minority communities most impacted by aggressive police enforcement of drug laws.<\/p>\n

Progressive lawmakers and activists are\u00a0particularly concerned\u00a0about the optics of allowing big companies to dominate the retail market at the expense of smaller entrepreneurs, particularly Black Virginians who have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition. Democratic lawmakers envisioned \u201csocial equity licenses\u201d that would help Black Virginians, particularly those convicted of misdemeanor marijuana offenses, get a piece of the new legal market.<\/p>\n

At a news conference last week, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said one of its priorities is finishing the legalization of marijuana in a \u201csocially responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur position on marijuana has been the same from the beginning: We need to legalize marijuana in the right way,\u201d said Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond. \u201cThere\u2019s this war on equity because they don\u2019t know what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican marijuana bills filed in the House strip out the social equity concept but include language promoting a role for \u201chistorically economically disadvantaged communities\u201d in the retail market. A\u00a0retail sales bill<\/a>\u00a0filed by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, uses the same term.<\/p>\n

Another key question raised by the various retail marijuana bills filed for the 2023 session is whether to allow the state\u2019s four licensed medical cannabis companies to begin \u201ctransitional\u201d recreational sales as the state works to set up a new retail licensing process. Some bills would allow medical dispensaries to become regular dispensaries as early as this year, but critics contend that would give a few major players an unfair head start in the retail market.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s regulatory system for cannabis remains jumbled, and some bills attempt to create a more streamlined approach.<\/p>\n

Bills sponsored by Del. Roxann Robinson, R-Chesterfield, and Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, would transfer oversight of the state\u2019s medical cannabis program away from the Board of Pharmacy and put it under the newly created Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Ebbin\u2019s bill would also put \u201cregulated hemp products\u201d under the purview of the Cannabis Control Authority, moving them away from the food safety sphere overseen by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.<\/p>\n

\u2018The sky isn\u2019t falling\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A hemp task force led by the Youngkin administration recently recommended creating a registration system for businesses that sell hemp products<\/a>. Legislation has been introduced to do just that, requiring businesses to pay $1,000 to register and creating the possibility of $10,000 fines for retailers who break the rules.<\/p>\n

That proposal has come under strong criticism from some in the hemp industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis puts every single retail operation in Virginia that wants to sell hemp products in a very precarious situation and a lot of risk, quite frankly,\u201d said Jason Amatucci, president of the Virginia Hemp Coalition. \u201cIt\u2019s overbearing for a problem that is not as dire or as extreme as they make it out to be. The sky isn\u2019t falling, no matter what they want to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, who\u2019s sponsoring an administration-backed hemp regulation bill, said the proposal \u201cis not onerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of registering properly,\u201d Hanger said. \u201cThat\u2019s the real essence of what we\u2019re trying to do, just having a systematic way of making sure all is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0hemp regulation bill<\/a>\u00a0filed by House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, broadens the state\u2019s definition of marijuana to cover all products that contain a certain amount of naturally occurring or synthetic THC, drawing a clearer regulatory line between cannabis products that get users high and those that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Delta-8 products have come under heightened scrutiny after\u00a0a Spotsylvania County boy died<\/a>\u00a0after allegedly eating a large amount of delta-8 gummies containing THC. In October, numerous ambulances\u00a0were sent<\/a>\u00a0to a Fairfax County middle school after more than half a dozen students said they had gotten sick from delta-8 gummies.<\/p>\n

In response to concerns about child safety, Amatucci said there are countless other legal products that can be harmful to children if not stored properly, including alcohol and over-the-counter drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because a kid got into something that they shouldn\u2019t have doesn\u2019t mean we need to take the whole industry down,\u201d Amatucci said.<\/p>\n

Legislation<\/a>\u00a0filed by Del. John McGuire, R-Goochland, calls for a tougher crackdown than what the Youngkin administration prefers by banning the sale of delta-8 products altogether.<\/p>\n

If Youngkin or the Republican-led House decides not to support a retail sales proposal, it\u2019s possible the main cannabis-related change of the 2023 session will be the state getting tougher on delta-8 and hemp with no movement toward legal sales of marijuana.<\/p>\n

Marijuana legalization wasn\u2019t a major campaign issue in Virginia\u2019s 2021 elections. But General Assembly members could be asked to explain their positions to voters in the high-stakes legislative elections this fall that will decide partisan control for the final two years of Youngkin\u2019s term.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Youngkin\u2019s lack of direction on this issue has created a near-immovable obstacle for House Republicans,\u201d said Pedini, the head of Virginia NORML. \u201cWhile it\u2019s reasonable to assume that he\u2019s aware voters on both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly support legalization, his recent statements have left Virginians, including his supporters, scratching their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Virginia Mercury.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Federal Agency Urges States To Mandate Marijuana-Impaired Driving Warning Labels As National Prohibition Blocks Broader Action\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Virginia Lawmakers Consider Updating Marijuana And Hemp Product Laws In 2023 Session<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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