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The march toward legalizing recreational marijuana sales in Virginia continues on, with the full House of Delegates and a Senate committee advancing a pair of companion bills to create a regulated adult-use cannabis market in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
The House on Tuesday passed a Senate-approved cannabis sales bill on second reading, teeing it up for final passage in the chamber. Earlier in the day, a House companion measure moved through the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in a 10-5 vote, sending the measure to the floor for consideration.<\/p>\n
Both chambers\u2019 marijuana sales proposals are aimed at giving adults a legal means of buying cannabis, the possession and home cultivation of which was legalized in the state in 2021\u2014though there are key differences between them.<\/p>\n
The measures in both chambers\u2014HB 642<\/a> and SB 542<\/a>\u2014were recently amended to stipulate that microbusiness licensees can cultivate, process or conduct retail sales at up to two locations instead of one, so long as they\u2019re located within 10 miles of each other and operate under common ownership and control.<\/p>\n Lawmakers have also revised the legislation to clarify that current medical cannabis businesses would only be able to cultivate cannabis indoors, including in secure greenhouses with a total canopy cap of 70,000 square feet. The amendments also make it so they could not have any additional marijuana licenses beyond their medical permits with \u201cdual-use privileges.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, the measures\u2019 conversion fee structure was revised in a way that lets current medical marijuana businesses pay for the privilege to serve the adult-use market in three installments.<\/p>\n There are certain remaining major differences between the chambers\u2019 bills that will still need to be addressed\u2014related to the start date for legal sales and cannabis tax rates\u2014before a final product can be delivered to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Here are the key details of the Virginia marijuana sales legalization legislation,\u00a0SB 542<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0HB 642<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Virginia House and Senate both took action on multiple marijuana bills on a key deadline last month<\/a>\u2014passing proposals to legalize cannabis sales, provide a pathway to resentencing for prior marijuana convictions and allow medical cannabis access in hospitals for seriously ill patients.<\/p>\n With respect to the Senate marijuana sales bill, members recently clashed in committee about amendments to the body\u2019s version that would have added new penalties for illegal cannabis activity.<\/p>\n The amendments at issue from the Courts of Justice Committee included penalties for consumers who buy from unlicensed sources, the recriminalization of cannabis possession by people under 21 and making sales a class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense and a crime punishable by mandatory jail time for a second offense. As revised, the bill would have also raised the penalty for unlicensed cultivation to a felony punishable by up to five years in jail and made it a felony to transport with intent to distribute cannabis across state lines.<\/p>\n But the Finance and Appropriations Committee reversed the amendments last month amid pressure from a coalition of advocacy groups that sent a letter to senators saying they undermined the \u201cintent\u201d of the legislation<\/a>\u00a0and the \u201cwill of the people\u201d by adding criminal penalties for certain cannabis-related activity.<\/p>\n Overall, both chambers\u2019 commercial sales bills have largely aligned with recommendations released in December by the legislature\u2019s Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, certain GOP members have found themselves ideologically aligned with their Democratic colleagues throughout this legislative process, breaking with the majority of their caucus\u00a0in support of creating a regulated marketplace for adults to purchase cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021,\u00a0Virginia lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market<\/a>\u2014only to have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by the legislature.<\/p>\n Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), for her part, supports legalizing adult-use marijuana sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Virginia House and Senate lawmakers on Monday advanced a pair of companion bills, with amendments, that would provide a pathway to resentencing for people with prior marijuana convictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Members of the Senate and House Courts of Justice Committees on Monday approved substitute versions of the opposite chamber\u2019s reform legislation, making certain revisions that set the stage for bicameral negotiations as the measures move forward in the legislative process.<\/p>\n The legislation as introduced in both chambers would create a process by which people who are incarcerated or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana could receive an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.<\/p>\n Separately last month, the Virginia House\u00a0passed a bill to\u00a0allow patients to use medical marijuana in hospitals<\/a>. It would require healthcare facilities to establish policies \u201cto address circumstances under which an eligible patient would be permitted to use medical cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n The Senate passed differing legislation concerning the\u00a0use of medical cannabis in health care facilities<\/a>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, the Virginia House this month approved a bill to\u00a0protect the rights of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the proposal from Del. Nadarius Clark (D), possession of use of cannabis by a parent or guardian on its own \u201cshall not serve as a basis to deem a child abused or neglected unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption causes or creates a risk of physical or mental injury to the child.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA person\u2019s legal possession or consumption of substances authorized under [the state\u2019s marijuana law] alone shall not serve as a basis to restrict custody or visitation unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption is not in the best interest of the child,\u201d the text of the bill,\u00a0HB 942, states.<\/p>\n Separately, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry recently published a new\u00a0outlining workplace protections for cannabis consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Virginia House And Senate Lawmakers Advance Marijuana Sales Legalization Bills Toward Governor\u2019s Desk<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The march toward legalizing recreational marijuana sales in Virginia continues on, with the full House of Delegates and a Senate committee advancing a pair of companion bills to create a regulated adult-use cannabis market in the Commonwealth. The House on Tuesday passed a Senate-approved cannabis sales bill on second reading,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":85578,"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\/85577"}],"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=85577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85579,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85577\/revisions\/85579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Virginia House And Senate Lawmakers Advance Marijuana Sales Legalization Bills Toward Governor\u2019s Desk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"