The Joint Commission on the Future of Cannabis Sales held its final public meeting this week before lawmakers begin drafting the next version of Virginia’s adult-use cannabis bill. The bill will be introduced when the General Assembly returns in January and, if it passes through the full legislative process, would not reach Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger’s desk until March. Her administration has signaled support for establishing a regulated retail market, raising the stakes inside the room, where small growers, equity advocates, hemp processors, and people directly harmed by past cannabis enforcement gathered to weigh in one last time.

Earlier this week, The Commission unveiled a revised framework that is significantly more detailed than previous proposals. It adds new equity mechanisms, stronger ownership rules, and an accelerated path for medical cannabis companies to convert into large scale adult-use operators. It also removes local opt-outs and sets a fixed statewide retail launch date of November 1, 2026.

The key question throughout the session was whether these changes create a fair marketplace or lay the foundation for consolidation by a handful of well-capitalized companies.

Several major changes distinguish this proposal from earlier versions that failed to become law:

Localities cannot opt out: Earlier bills allowed counties and cities to block retail stores. The new version removes opt-outs entirely, creating a uniform statewide market.

Introduction of impact licenses: The bill introduces impact licenses with the goal of reserving half of all licenses for applicants affected by past criminalization, agricultural decline, economic disadvantage, or geographic inequity. The first one hundred licenses issued under the new system will go to impact applicants, not microbusinesses specifically.

Anti-monopoly and ownership transparency rules: Applicants must disclose all beneficial owners. The state will have authority to investigate financial structures that grant hidden control. Limits will be placed on how many top-tier cultivation licenses an entity can hold.

Guaranteed pathway for medical operators: Existing medical cannabis companies can convert to full adult-use vertical operations by paying a ten million dollar fee. They would automatically receive the largest cultivation licenses in the state. The conversion pathway for medical operators has existed since 2022, but its expanded use in this framework remains one of the most debated provisions.

Fixed retail start date: This version sets November 1, 2026 as the first day of legal sales. Critics argue that only medical operators will be ready by then.

Expanded reinvestment fund: A significant share of tax revenue will flow into the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, which will support loans, training, and technical assistance for impact applicants.

Hemp integration: Some hemp growers and processors may qualify for early entry into the adult-use market through the impact license pathway or by meeting new eligibility criteria. The framework also creates a separate conversion opportunity allowing up to six hemp operators to enter the adult-use system by paying a five hundred thousand dollar fee.

Enforcement and regulation: The Cannabis Control Authority retains oversight responsibilities and gains authority to audit ownership and financing structures to protect equity licensees.

Impact Licenses: Impact licenses are awarded to applicants who meet at least four of seven race-neutral criteria tied to past cannabis criminalization, economic disadvantage, or agricultural distress. This is a status, not a single license type. Impact applicants can pursue cultivation, processing, retail, or microbusiness. The first one hundred licenses in the program will go to impact applicants.

Microbusiness Licenses: Microbusinesses are small, vertically integrated operations with strict canopy limits. They may cultivate, process, and deliver products. A microbusiness may also be an impact applicant, but it does not have to be. Only microbusinesses that qualify as impact applicants will be part of the first one hundred early-access licenses.

Standard Retail, Cultivation, and Processing Licenses: Hemp growers and processors who meet additional thresholds may also pursue a separate five hundred thousand dollar conversion pathway, available to up to six operators, allowing them to transition into the adult-use system outside the standard impact window.

Medical Cannabis Operators: Existing medical cannabis companies will convert into the adult-use system through a separate process. Their licenses do not count against the three hundred fifty-license cap.

One of the most consequential elements of the proposed framework is the decision to cap adult-use retail licenses at roughly three hundred fifty statewide. The cap applies only to retail. It does not apply to cultivation licenses, processing licenses, or microbusiness licenses, all of which remain uncapped.

The retail cap immediately collides with the scale of Virginia’s hemp sector. The state has several thousand hemp growers, processors, and retailers who have already invested in farms, storefronts, extraction facilities, and distribution systems. Under the current proposal, only a small share of them will be able to secure one of the limited retail slots.

The first one hundred licenses issued in Virginia’s adult-use market will be microbusiness licenses, but early access is restricted to applicants who meet at least one of three qualifiers. To enter the early window, an applicant must be a hemp business, a farmer, or an applicant with impact status under the bill’s race-neutral impact criteria.

These are not “impact licenses.” Impact is an application status, not a license type. Microbusiness licenses also exist outside of the early-access group, but only applicants who meet at least one of the three qualifiers are eligible for the first one hundred microbusiness slots. All other microbusiness and retail applicants must wait until the early-access window closes.

There is also a separate pathway for hemp operators. Up to five hemp businesses will be eligible for a $500,000 retail conversion opportunity, allowing them to enter the adult-use retail market directly if they meet specific requirements.

Longtime grower Nick Austin of Royal Family Hemp said the retail cap does not reflect the size or readiness of Virginia’s agricultural community.

“There are already plenty of hemp growers here that are ready to grab one of those top tier licenses,” he said. “I would rather lose it to one of them than to Columbia Care.”

Impact applicants raised similar concerns. Eric Spencer, who holds equity licenses in New York and Minnesota, said the fixed retail cap creates scarcity rather than a functioning marketplace.

“When it is three hundred fifty, it seems like a lot, but it is not,” he said. “New York and New Jersey do not have a cap. Everybody who gets a license will not be open anyway because it is so hard to operate.”

Several speakers urged lawmakers to increase the retail cap or create a rolling system that expands as the market develops. Without changes, many hemp operators who positioned themselves for legalization may find themselves locked out of the regulated retail system entirely.

Many advocates acknowledged positive elements in the new draft. Chelsea Higgs Wise of Marijuana Justice said she supports stronger transparency rules and the Commission’s attempts to give small operators a chance.

“I really liked the transparency and the control of ownership to make sure small businesses cannot be exploited or bought out without a fair trade,” she said. “Including one hundred micros in the beginning and removing the opt-out is best for the entire Commonwealth.”

She said the impact criteria are broader and more inclusive than in earlier versions, especially with the addition of farmers and people with past cannabis convictions. But she said the bill still concentrates too much power in the hands of the existing medical companies.

“We are basically creating a state mandated monopoly for the medical operators,” she said. “Ten million dollars is pennies to them. All ten Tier 5 cultivation licenses will go to the medical corporations. That is a complete market capture.”

Higgs Wise also warned that the fixed start date could result in a market that is open only to the companies positioned to meet it.

“If the regulators are not ready in time, the only ones selling on day one will be the medical companies,” she said.

For returning citizens, the bill’s emphasis on impact licensing is meaningful, but many said that without financing and additional time, true access remains out of reach.

Spencer, who spent thirteen years in prison for non-violent drug offenses, said the new structure puts impact applicants behind medical operators and hemp applicants.

“Impact applicants are still third in line,” he said. “Do not shut the door before I get in the door.”

He said the November 2026 date is unrealistic for people trying to secure real estate, hire employees, and set up compliant operations.

“The only people up and running by then are the pharmaceutical companies,” he said. “If Virginia wants to be truly equitable, you have to push that date out.”

Spencer added that because cannabis remains federally illegal, equity applicants cannot access traditional small business loans.

“You have to find real estate, put together your team, hire employees. The banking barrier affects every returning citizen trying to participate,” he said.

Grower Nick Austin said he appreciated the Commission’s attention to small grower protections but remained concerned about the financial advantage larger companies hold.

“Ten million dollars is nothing to them,” he said. “They will undercut us with ten, twenty, forty, fifty dollar ounces.”

Austin said the expanded reinvestment fund is necessary because small operators cannot access traditional banking.

“We do not have a bank. How are we going to move up without self-funding,” he said. “That fifty percent fund is needed because we have to fund our own business loans.”

Advocates noted that even with new state-funded loan programs, the banking problem remains unresolved. Because cannabis is still illegal under federal law, most commercial lenders and financial institutions will not issue business loans, lines of credit, or standard financing products to new operators. Larger companies rely on private capital and outside investors, while small growers, hemp operators, and equity applicants must depend on personal savings or limited state programs. Chelsea Higgs Wise of Marijuana Justice said this creates a barrier that policy reforms alone cannot fully fix.

“We have to make sure the community development financial institution can get the money out,” she said. “Every business requires reinvestment. We do not have banks for loans. That is why the state needs to be that investor.”

He added that tax rates above eight percent would make it difficult for growers to compete long term.

Austin also supported the inclusion of hemp operators in early-stage licensing.

“These hemp farmers put in the money and the work. They should be included in the future,” he said.

The General Assembly will now begin converting the framework into full bill language. Lawmakers will need to determine how to divide the three hundred fifty retail licenses across the supply chain, how to manage the transition for the hemp industry, and whether to adjust the strict launch date to give impact applicants a realistic chance to participate.

The meeting made clear that many of the proposed measures represent progress, but the structure still carries the risk of recreating disparities that advocates have spent years trying to correct. Whether the new system can deliver on equity will depend on decisions made in the coming months, including how regulators sequence licensing, enforce ownership rules, and support applicants who lack access to capital.

For now, the framework is the most detailed and equity focused version the state has produced. The people who will live under it say it still needs refinement if Virginia intends to build a market that reflects its promises rather than its constraints.

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