The town of Boones Mill in Franklin County is about to do something that apparently no other locality in Virginia has done: It’s going to hold a public hearing on cannabis.

Specifically, about what townspeople might want to see in a town ordinance related to legal sales of cannabis, which could come to Virginia as early as Nov. 1.

The hearing, set for Tuesday at 6 p.m., appears to be the first such locality hearing in the state, according to Michelle Gowdy of the Virginia Municipal League.

Here’s how far ahead of the curve Boones Mill (population about 275) is: It’s anticipating a law that hasn’t been passed yet.

The driver behind the hearing is town council member Jason Masching, who told me in a phone interview that he wants to let townspeople know that “if [the proposed legislation] comes down the way it currently looks, the town of Boones Mill has no say into whether retail cannabis can come in or not.” If that proposed legislation is changed in the upcoming General Assembly session to give localities more say, then he’d like to know what townspeople want. 

The Boones Mill hearing is the first fallout from last month’s revelation that the legalization bill being drafted won’t allow an opt-out clause. Until then, the assumption was that localities that didn’t want cannabis sales could hold a referendum to vote to ban weed stores. That’s no longer expected to be the case. After a December meeting of the state commission that’s been working on the legislation, its chairman, Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax County, explained the change this way: “By allowing opt-out, we’re really allowing opting into the black market. So we won’t have any dry counties the way there is with alcohol.” 

However you feel about the devil’s lettuce, give Boones Mill credit for recognizing the implication of this change and trying to anticipate what comes next.

For anyone who shows up at the Boones Mill public hearing (or is curious for how this relates to their own community), here are some baseline facts to know.

This isn’t in doubt. There will be debate, but the outcome is already known. The General Assembly, with narrow Democratic majorities, passed legalization bills in 2024 and 2025, only to have them vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose interest in cannabis has been somewhere less than zero. The Democrats still control the General Assembly, only now with an expanded majority in the House. And after Saturday, there will be a new governor, Abigail Spanberger, who has said she’d sign a legalization bill.

The only question is what the bill will actually say. While we don’t know precisely, we do know some of the highlights because they’ve been talked about in the Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.

The rationale for legalizing cannabis isn’t to make jazz cabbage (my favorite nickname) more available. Weed is already so widely available that in many communities from Roanoke to the west you can find rogue stores openly selling cannabis under the guise of being private “membership clubs” or “adult share” operations where, if you buy an overpriced T-shirt or hat, the store will “gift” you a free bag of pot. Attorney General Jason Miyares has said those are illegal, but he doesn’t have the power to shut them down, and local law enforcement has shown little interest because the penalties are so light. 

Instead, the rationale is that if we legalize sales, we can collect tax revenue, create jobs and make sure people who chose to light up a blunt (or pop back an edible) are consuming a safe product. (We at Cardinal have periodically bought some of that black market weed and had it tested; the tests often find it’s full of unhealthy mold and metals.)

If Virginia doesn’t allow localities to opt out, it will be unusual. Of the 23 states that allow retail sales of cannabis, 20 have some kind of local option provision whereby a locality can ban weed stores. However, the thinking behind allowing an opt-out clause is that any locality that opts out simply enables the black market, when the overall goal is to squeeze out the black market. 

We don’t know yet what kind of pushback there will be in the General Assembly against not having an opt-out clause. Masching says part of the reason behind the public hearing is to see whether people in Boones Mill want such a clause. Political reality: It may be too late for that. The legislators who will vote in favor of legal retail are all from localities that would almost certainly approve retail sales; the legislators from localities that might vote to opt out — generally speaking, conservative ones — are in the minority. We don’t know Spanberger’s views on dropping the opt-out clause; my sense is the only way it comes back is if the new governor insists on it. Given her law enforcement background, I’d be surprised if she does, since the argument against an opt-out is partly a law enforcement argument: We don’t need communities where the law allows black markets to thrive.

We won’t have a weed store on every corner, even if the free market could support that. The plan is for the state to issue licenses for 350 retail stores. For a comparison, Virginia has 402 Alcoholic Beverage Control stores. There’s no ABC store in Boones Mill, so the odds are that there might not be a cannabis store in Boones Mill, either. It all depends on who gets a license and for where — something that will be decided by the state’s Cannabis Control Authority, whose members are appointed by the governor.

On the other hand, it’s easy to imagine someone thinking Boones Mill is a good location. It’s right on U.S. 220 between Roanoke and Rocky Mount, with a high traffic count, so the town seems wise to anticipate the possibility, for good or ill.

The bill that will get introduced will spell out some restrictions that localities can place on cannabis store locations; we just don’t know yet what they will be. For instance, localities will likely be allowed to ban cannabis stories within a certain number of feet of schools, churches and day care centers — but they won’t be allowed to enact anything stronger than what the state allows. The working distance has been 1,000 feet. If that sticks, much (but not all) of Boones Mill could get zoned out of cannabis. If the Trump Store were still a church, even more of the town might be ineligible.

This is a practical consideration that other small communities may have: After you zone out whatever radius is allowed, there may not be much of the town left.

One issue that has yet to be sorted out is how much distance there should be between cannabis stores: The working proposal has been 1 mile, but cannabis advocates pushed back against that, so it was put aside for more study. 

The commission working on the legalization bill envisions that stores be discreet, much like the current medical marijuana dispensaries are. Communities need not worry about some garish signage. 

The commission also envisions weed deliveries, just like pizza deliveries, with one big exception: Those involved in delivering cannabis will need a state license.

The commission envisions a tax rate in Virginia of 8%, with the option for localities to add a local tax of up to 3.5%, for a total of 11.5%. “We want to be competitive with Maryland,” Krizek said last month. Maryland’s cannabis tax started at 9% but this year raised its rate to 12.5% with no local tax allowed. 

While the focus in Boones Mill is on the public-facing retail side of the operation, let’s not forget the rest of the cannabis supply chain — the growers and the processors. That’s where the jobs will be.

The Vangst 2024 Jobs Report estimates that only 23% of the jobs in the cannabis sector are in retail — 30% are in cultivation, 17% in processing and another 30% in other parts of the operation, which include things such as testing and marketing.

Furthermore, that 77% of the cannabis industry that’s not retail is where the best-paying jobs will be. 

The 2025 Salary Guide published by CannabizTeam Worldwide says plant breeders get paid $65,000 to $104,500 per year, tissue culture technicians from $59,800 to $88,900 and the chemists who analyze the product from $66,200 to $99,700. Or, you could aim higher (no pun intended): A director of extraction can earn $98,000 to $143,000, while a vice president of cultivation can make $130,000 to $180,000.

It’s easy to snicker at cannabis, and even disapprove of it. However, we’ve passed the point where disapproval matters. Retail sales will be legalized. This isn’t just about selling joints; it’s about creating an entirely new industry. If we set aside our feelings, what are the economic development opportunities here?

The proposed legislation envisions 10 large-scale cultivation facilities (defined as 45,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet) but leaves it up to the Cannabis Control Authority to decide how many licenses should be awarded for smaller growhouses and processing facilities. Somebody in Virginia is going to get these jobs. Localities (especially rural ones in the most need of jobs) ought to be focusing now on what they need to do to land those operations. 

Side note: The indoor farming operation in Pittsylvania County, AeroFarms, announced last month it was closing, then said it would stay open, at least temporarily. As Cardinal’s Tad Dickens recently reported, its fate is very unclear. Here’s a thought: That facility would be a perfect fit for an indoor cannabis-growing operation. If Pittsylvania County wants to make sure there’s a Plan B for those workers, maybe it ought to be making contact with whoever wants to apply for one of those 10 cultivation licenses — or vice versa. This is infrastructure already in place.

The General Assembly has held multiple hearings on cannabis over the years, and while those have had a virtual option, they’ve still been in Richmond. Lots of things happen in Richmond, though, that the general public doesn’t pay attention to until it’s right before them. Cannabis will be one of them. Once the legislation is passed and signed, the action will move to every locality in the state to pass whatever zoning they want or can. Boones Mill’s town council may hear some things Tuesday that legislators ought to hear. Whether that matters may depend on what it is people have to say — and how many opt in for speaking and how many opt out and let nature take its course. 

Cardinal News is holding an online event Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m., where our Richmond-based political reporter, Elizabeth Beyer, and I will be talking up the upcoming legislative session. Register here. (Yeah, I know. Same time as the Boones Mill public hearing.)

This is going to be a big year for politics: A new governor, a new General Assembly, a possible redistricting, a U.S. Senate election, House elections and multiple local government elections. Stay in the know with our weekly political newsletter, West of the Capital. Sign up below: