Virginia fails to establish legal marijuana market

Virginia would be the first state within the South to legalize marijuana possession, however truly getting a maintain of the drug hasn’t gotten any simpler.

Why it issues: Virginia is not going to have a authorized marijuana market this 12 months. Legislators are unlikely to take up the difficulty once more till their common session subsequent 12 months.

Driving the information: The Virginia legislative session led to a stalemate this previous weekend after legislators failed to ascertain a authorized retail market, Axios’ Ned Oliver studies.

• In addition they pushed to defund the state’s new Hashish Management Authority, which was established to control the marijuana market.

Catch up fast: Marijuana is authorized to own (as much as one ounce in public), develop (not more than 4 vegetation), and present (however not within the D.C. means). But it surely’s nonetheless a felony to promote the plant exterior of the state’s medical marijuana program, and there’s no authorized avenue for leisure retail gross sales.

• Democratic lawmakers — who two years in the past voted alongside celebration traces to legalize marijuana possession — deliberate to ascertain a authorized retail market by 2024, however then misplaced management of the Home of Delegates and the governor’s workplace in 2021.

In the meantime: In the course of the session, lawmakers cracked down on hemp-based artificial THC merchandise which have proliferated in tobacco outlets and gasoline stations — a prime precedence of Gov. Youngkin’s.

• This implies hemp-derived merchandise shall be topic to a extra strong allowing course of and a restrict on how a lot THC may be in every product, per the Virginia Mercury.

What they’re saying: Proponents of the brand new hemp guidelines say they seem to be a step in direction of a safer shopper market, studies the Virginia Mercury, and Youngkin is more likely to signal the measure.

The opposite aspect: “I feel individuals who wish to see progress on legalized gross sales for hashish want to recollect this election 12 months which celebration has stood in the way in which,” Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, tells Axios.