Gov. Abigail Spanberger says her proposed amendments to legislation regulating adult-use cannabis sales amounted to little more than a six-month delay and a few increased penalties. But that characterization ignores two realities: Virginia has already spent six years preparing for this exact policy change, and her amendments would have repealed the bipartisan decriminalization laws enacted in 2020.

Her amendments imposed new criminal penalties for minor infractions Virginia lawmakers deliberately decriminalized in 2020, penalties that would once again fall disproportionately on young, Black and brown Virginians. 

That was an unacceptable step backwards. The governor should have known better.

Spanberger has argued that Virginia should learn from the mistakes made by other states before moving forward with adult-use cannabis retail. Yet we have already done exactly that. We have spent years studying other states’ successes and failures, incorporating those lessons into state policy and continually improving our existing cannabis regulatory system that has successfully governed medical sales since 2021.

This work began in 2020, when lawmakers commissioned a comprehensive study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission and Gov. Ralph Northam convened a Marijuana Legalization Work Group that spent months evaluating public health, criminal justice, economic, agricultural and regulatory considerations before producing a detailed 500-page roadmap for cannabis legalization.

Virginia also created the Cannabis Control Authority, established the Cannabis Oversight Commission and convened multiple advisory bodies focused on public health, consumer protection and equity to continue refining the commonwealth’s approach to cannabis regulation.

Virginia did the research.

Virginia built the regulatory framework.

Virginia created the oversight bodies.

Virginia established the agency responsible for regulation.

Virginia spent six years debating, revising and refining adult-use cannabis policy.

If six years of studies, commissions, expert testimony, stakeholder engagement and regulatory planning are not enough time to prepare for adult-use cannabis sales, it is fair to ask, “What exactly remains unstudied?”

The commonwealth has successfully regulated cannabis sales through its medical program since 2021. Licensed dispensaries operate under state oversight. Products are tested. Sales are tracked. Patients are served safely every day. The suggestion that Virginia lacks either the expertise or infrastructure necessary to regulate adult-use cannabis sales simply does not withstand scrutiny.

More importantly, the governor’s six-month-delay argument assumes the status quo is neutral. It is not.

Virginia already has an adult-use marijuana market, but it is an unregulated one

Consumers purchase intoxicating THC products every day from smoke shops, vape stores and other retailers operating throughout the commonwealth. These products, frequently marketed as “hemp,” are widely available. Despite years of enforcement efforts, the market continues to expand, target youth and pose public health and safety risks.

That is the system Spanberger’s veto preserves.

The public safety question facing Virginia is not whether adults will have access to marijuana. They already do.

The question is whether cannabis products should be sold through regulated, age-restricted dispensaries subject to strict testing, oversight and accountability, or through an unregulated marketplace that exists largely outside of those safeguards.

That is why the governor’s claim that this is merely a six-month delay is so misleading. Every month of delay is another month that Virginians are pushed toward an unregulated market that policymakers across the political spectrum acknowledge is predatory and dangerous.

Public support for a regulated retail cannabis market has remained remarkably consistent for many years. Virginians understand that replacing an unregulated marijuana market with regulated, age-restricted dispensaries is not only a consumer issue but a public safety issue. They have repeatedly said so in poll after poll.

Supporters of the veto argue lawmakers can simply return next year with a better bill. But the legislation sent to the governor’s desk was itself the product of years of studies, commissions, hearings, stakeholder engagement, negotiations and amendments. No major policy change in Virginia has been more thoroughly examined.

Spanberger has repeatedly said she supports replacing the illicit and unregulated market with a system that prioritizes public safety, product integrity, accountability and protecting minors.

So do we.

The difference is that Virginia has already spent six years figuring out how to do exactly that.

JM Pedini is the development director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and serves as the executive director of the state chapter, Virginia NORML.