Virginia lawmakers passed legislation to let people 21 and over buy cannabis recreationally starting Jan. 1, 2027, moving the state closer to ending its yearslong stay in marijuana purgatory.
If it is signed into law by Gov. Abigail Spanberger as expected, the legislation would mark the end of a six-year wait for people who have been allowed to carry small amounts of marijuana without a way to buy it for recreational use.
In 2021, a Democrat-led General Assembly passed legislation that let people 21 and over possess small amounts of marijuana and have up to four cannabis plants in their homes starting in July of that year.
The initial plan at the time was for marijuana possession and recreational sales to both start in 2024, but Democratic then-Gov. Ralph Northam called for possession to be decriminalized sooner.
After the House of Delegates and state Senate passed their own versions of the cannabis market bill, a group of eight legislators began closed-door negotiations to iron out differences and come up with a final compromise.
On the last day of the 2026 legislative session, the House passed the conference bill 64–32, in a mostly party-line vote. The Senate voted 21–18 late Friday night to pass the bill.
State Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D–Henrico), who carried the Senate bill, called the legislation “a balanced path” to open Virginia’s retail cannabis market. She said the deal was the product of months of collaboration and negotiation among lawmakers, regulators, industry representatives, advocates and other stakeholders.
“Many parties did not get everything they asked for, but everyone got what they needed to legally and safely operate a marketplace,” Aird said on the Senate floor before Friday’s vote. “This is the hallmark of a good compromise.”
The start date for the legal retail market was one of the sticking points, with the bill proposed by Del. Paul Krizek (D–Fairfax) opening sales on Nov. 1, 2026, and the Senate’s bill from Aird calling for 2027.
In the end, the Senate’s start date prevailed, but the tax structure the House wanted ended up making the final proposal. The compromise establishes a 6% state cannabis tax, and would allow localities to adopt an additional 1–3.5% local tax. Combined with existing sales tax, the total tax would typically be around 12-16%, Aird said.
Existing medical cannabis operators in Virginia would have to pay $10 million to get into the retail marketplace, a compromise between the $5 million proposed in the House and the $15 million proposed in the Senate.
The final proposal maintains language that was in both bills, including capping the number of retail cannabis establishment licenses at 350 and increasing the possession limit from 1 ounce to 2.5 ounces. Localities can’t opt out of recreational sales.
Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority would lead enforcement of illegal cannabis cultivation, sales and distribution, and the state’s Cannabis Control Authority would administer retail cannabis licensing and regulation.
By 2028, the proposal calls for the CCA to become a division of ABC to form the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Cannabis Control Authority.
The legislation strips out marijuana-related penalties currently in state code, but adds new misdemeanor and felony offenses for illegal cannabis cultivation and sales.
In one example, selling or distributing marijuana without a license would be a Class 2 misdemeanor for the first offense, a Class 1 misdemeanor for a second and then a Class 6 felony for subsequent offenses.
Last year, Krizek said that Virginia is projected to bring in more than $400 million in annual tax revenue over the first five years of legal recreational cannabis sales.
The bill directs 40% of the state’s cannabis tax revenues toward early childhood care and education and 30% to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, which supports people “historically and disproportionately targeted and affected by drug enforcement” and awards grants to businesses.
Under the final bill, a retail marijuana store can’t be located within 1,000 feet of a school or day care.
The oversight of industrial intoxicating hemp, which has been regulated by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, will transfer to the CCA, according to the legislation.
The final compromise also removes provisions limiting cannabis microbusinesses from selling and buying among themselves and updates testing and labeling rules for products.
The final proposal now heads to Spanberger, who can sign it into law, propose changes or veto the measure. Unlike her predecessor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, Spanberger has said she backs opening a legal retail cannabis market in Virginia.
Copyright 2026 VPM
