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Details about a proposed compromise bill to legalize retail cannabis in Virginia<\/a> are beginning to emerge ahead of a planned negotiation session set for Thursday.<\/p>\n While not yet final, the compromise offer\u2014meant to bridge gaps between two competing measures passed last week by the House and Senate<\/a>\u2014would eliminate provisions in the current House bill that would allow some businesses to launch sales earlier than others while also slightly pushing back the timeline for when the recreational market would open.<\/p>\n Del. Paul Krizek (D), the lead sponsor of HB 698<\/a>, confirmed some details of the proposed compromise to Marijuana Moment via email on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Under the revised plan, Krizek said, retailers would be able to open for business as soon as March 1 of next year\u2014a slight delay compared to his current bill, which would let existing medical marijuana operators, five hemp businesses and up to 60 microbusinesses start sales on January 1, 2025. Under that plan, additional retailers wouldn\u2019t be licensed until later in the year.<\/p>\n Another topic expected to be taken up during Thursday\u2019s closed-door negotiations include social equity. In the current House bill, an accelerator program would provide $400,000 in startup capital to dozens of equity-focused microbusinesses. Existing medical marijuana providers would each need to provide $2.4 million toward those businesses in order to open for adult-use sales on January 1.<\/p>\n Justice advocates say those equity provisions are crucial, but others are concerned the details could prompt a veto from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).<\/p>\n \u201cWe have agreed to the start date but need to see the crafting of the equity language to ensure that it is not setting up to be an automatic governor veto,\u201d Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The compromise is expected to attempt to preserve funding for equity businesses but draw money from state resources rather than medical marijuana operators.<\/p>\n Others have noted that Sen. Aaron Rouse (D), lead sponsor of the Senate legal sales bill, SB 448<\/a>, could still reject the proposed compromise from the House.<\/p>\n \u201cSen. Rouse has been pretty clear that he doesn\u2019t want an incubation model where the medical providers are directly funding micro-businesses,\u201d lobbyist Greg Habeeb told local news outlet Cardinal News, which first reported<\/a> the negotiated March 1 start date.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the elected officials have expressed is an agreement that we ought to have a way to support those small businesses, but agreed that it shouldn\u2019t be driven by one market player,\u201d added Habeeb, who\u2019s also a former Republican member of the state\u2019s House of Delegates.<\/p>\n Rouse\u2019s office has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Marijuana Moment in recent weeks.<\/p>\n House minority leader Del. Todd Gilbert (R), meanwhile, has emphasized that the governor will likely veto any Democrat-led bill\u2014a prediction shared by some legalization advocates.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor said he is not interested in signing a bill like that, and it sounded definitive,\u201d Gilbert told Cardinal News. \u201cThis should end all the speculation of what\u2019s going to happen, regardless of how the votes turn out.\u201d<\/p>\n While the governor has not explicitly said he\u2019ll veto a retail marijuana bill, he signaled last month that he\u00a0doesn\u2019t have \u201cany interest\u201d in legalizing sales under either of the Democrat-led plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n When he was first elected, however, Youngkin said\u00a0he was \u201cnot against\u201d allowing commercial sales categorically<\/a>.<\/p>\n JM Pedini, development director for the advocacy organization NORML and executive director of the group\u2019s Virginia chapter, told Marijuana Moment earlier this week that as negotiations on legal sales proceed, supporters will need to craft a proposal that is palatable to Youngkin and GOP lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, the compromise will be able to garner bipartisan support,\u201d Pedini said. \u201cA bill that passes without any Republican votes is as good as dead on arrival at Gov. Youngkin\u2019s desk.\u201d<\/p>\n But Gilbert doesn\u2019t seem interested in even considering the current proposals, telling Cardinal News that dealmaking around legal sales \u201cis between the governor and Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are some of the\u00a0key ways the two bills differ in their approaches<\/a>\u00a0to regulated cannabis sales:<\/strong><\/p>\n Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults is already legal in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal\u00a0approved by lawmakers in 2021<\/a>. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Asked about the possibility of a veto, Krizek told Marijuana Moment in an interview Tuesday that his job is to craft the best possible legislation, not concern himself with how the governor might receive it.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cI don\u2019t craft bills based on what I think the governor is going to do,\u201d he said. \u201cAll I can do is try to craft the best legislation possible and hope that it\u2019s compelling enough that the governor would would either sign it or\u2026just let it become law.\u201d<\/p>\n If Youngkin does veto a legal sales bill, however, Krizek said he\u2019ll push the issue again next year.<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he told Marijuana Moment.\u201d I will keep bringing this back until we pass a bill that does what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n A sales bill\u00a0did advance through the Democratic-controlled Senate last session<\/a>, but it stalled in committee in the House, which at the time had a GOP majority.<\/p>\n Justice Department Researcher Says \u2018We May Need Better Tests\u2019 For Marijuana Impairment, Questioning \u2018Per Se\u2019 THC Limits For Driving<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Details On Virginia Marijuana Sales Compromise Offer Emerge As Lawmakers Work To Close Gaps Between Competing Bills<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Details about a proposed compromise bill to legalize retail cannabis in Virginia are beginning to emerge ahead of a planned negotiation session set for Thursday. While not yet final, the compromise offer\u2014meant to bridge gaps between two competing measures passed last week by the House and Senate\u2014would eliminate provisions inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":72653,"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\/72652"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72654,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72652\/revisions\/72654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Details On Virginia Marijuana Sales Compromise Offer Emerge As Lawmakers Work To Close Gaps Between Competing Bills<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"