Five years after Virginia lawmakers voted to allow marijuana possession in small amounts, they appear poised to finally let people 21 and over to buy it recreationally.

State Democrats are looking to open an adult-use retail cannabis market by Nov. 1, 2026, according to a plan unveiled Dec. 2 by the Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.

At its last meeting before the 2026 General Assembly session, the commission shared this timeline and other proposed changes to last year’s cannabis market bill carried by Del. Paul Krizek (D–Fairfax) and State Sen. Aaron Rouse (D–Virginia Beach) — which outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed.

“This is just a step in the process,” Krizek, the commission’s co-chair, told the room. “I’ve got 139 other colleagues that will be working on it as it goes through the general session.”

Among the commission’s proposals: having a maximum of 350 retail cannabis establishment licenses in Virginia, removing the option for localities to opt out of recreational sales and allowing local governments to levy a sales tax of up to 3.5% on cannabis products.

A half-baked system

A Democrat-led General Assembly passed legislation in 2021 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.

Northam — who was working to rehabilitate his image after a 2019 scandal where a photo surfaced of him wearing blackface in his medical school yearbook, leading to calls for his resignation — wanted to try to address the racial disparity in weed arrests, said Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of the Richmond-based nonprofit Marijuana Justice.

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VPM News

Wise said her organization and others were involved in persuading Northam to push for the accelerated timeline: “We were arresting 20,000 to 30,000 people a year for small amounts of marijuana. And we knew that Black people in Virginia were being impacted over four times the rate than white people.”

While the legislature voted to allow recreational cannabis possession starting in July 2021, lawmakers agreed to keep the July 2024 timeline for retail sales and require a separate vote on establishing a market.

State Republicans have been able to block the creation of a retail recreational market so far — first with a House of Delegates majority in 2022 and 2023, then through vetoes from Youngkin.

State Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D–Petersburg), the other co-chair of the cannabis market joint commission, said this has left Virginians looking to buy marijuana in “limbo” and turning to the illicit market.

“It left law enforcement handicapped in their ability to enforce and really ensure accountability to cannabis being accessible,” Aird told VPM News.

With Democrats still in control of the General Assembly and with Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger coming to office, lawmakers planning on carrying cannabis legislation in 2026 are focused on the bill’s finer details instead of worrying about a veto.

Spanberger has said she supports creating a recreational cannabis market. Her press office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

What could Virginia’s weed market look like?

Virginia’s Cannabis Control Authority would regulate the market, covering everything from licensing and auditing to public education, according to the commission’s plan.

Krizek said at the Dec. 2 meeting that Virginia is projected to bring in more than $400 million in annual revenue over the next five years from legal recreational cannabis sales.

The goal is to open the application process for those hoping to get into the industry by July 1, and to issue those licenses by September before the marketplace launches in November.

Aird said the commission listened to stakeholders — including farmers, small businesses and advocacy groups — when crafting the proposals expected to be in the 2026 bill.

Virginia farmers and advocates who spoke with VPM News praised the work done to get to this point, but shared concerns that the proposed rollout could keep them from thriving in a competitive market.

Mark Tavares, the owner of a seed-to-sale hemp grower called RootingVA, said he’s focused on the proposal calling for the Cannabis Control Authority to establish a tracking system for licensees to use.

“We need more than two months,” Tavares told VPM News. “The timeline of a plant to grow in the vegetation state is anywhere from four to eight weeks, with six being an average. You typically have an eight-week flower period.”

Tavares said it depends on the tracking system that is selected — and that if larger businesses already have the type of tracking system the state intends to require (or the money to make the switch quickly), they will get a leg up: “They’re going to be the only people able to have a product for the recreational consumers.”

Wise applauded the work done by the commission. However, she also raised concerns about the timeline and potential “rush to revenue” crowding out competition and limiting the ability of local businesses and growers to be part of a “historic day in Virginia.”

“We will have lines wrapped around the corner for out-of-state, publicly-traded corporations instead of Virginia businesses, when this is still a crop and we are still an agricultural state,” she said.

The proposal includes creating an “impact licensee” category for applicants that meet at least four of the seven race-neutral criteria outlined by the commission. They include criteria such as having past marijuana-related convictions or living in “a historically economically disadvantaged community.”

The commission also proposed a change to allow people convicted of felony distribution of marijuana to get an impact license.

Under the commission’s proposal, half of what goes into the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund would go towards the Virginia Cannabis Equity Business Loan Fund. Lawmakers also propose putting $3 million in the budget to support the first round of licenses.

Another provision expected to be in the 2026 bill would require license applicants to have entered into a labor peace agreement with a bona fide labor organization.

The state would issue up to 100 temporary direct-to-consumer microbusiness licenses that allow certain small cultivators to qualify for such impact licenses. The CCA would prioritize issuing these 100 licenses, per the commission’s blueprint.

Thelonius Cook, president of the Mid Atlantic Black Farmers Caucus, owns and operates a 7.5-acre farm on the Eastern Shore called the Mighty Thundercloud Edible Forest.

Cook told VPM News that he’s trying to get into the cannabis market, and praised the efforts to potentially open up the marketplace. He said that he believes the local farmer has a key role because of the trust in the community.

“People want to know how their product is being grown,” he said. “And many small farmers already have built a relationship with their consumers that have trusted in the food that they consume.”

Aird told VPM News that the CCA has said that a Nov. 1, 2026, start will be “difficult,” but that she believes the commission is focused on ensuring small Virginia businesses could have a shot in the market. She noted the caps on money directed to fund small ventures and 100 temporary microbusiness licenses that will let local cultivators sell directly to customers.

But Aird said that the legislation “doesn’t make anybody completely happy,” telling VPM News early funding is not enough — and that she’s worried about people being able to survive in such a difficult industry.

“I believe that it is not helpful for the commonwealth to set an unrealistic expectation to individuals, which is that this marketplace is going to be a cash cow for everyone who wants to get into it,” Aird said.

Drawing the map

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VPM News

One consideration state lawmakers will also have to make is deciding how far cannabis shops can be from one another.

People in attendance at the Dec. 2 meeting groaned when the commission announced its recommendation to increase the minimum separation distance from 1,000 feet to one mile.

Krizek told the public that the commission wanted to ensure areas were similarly situated in terms of density, but that the debate would continue and the recommendations could change.

State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D–Alexandria), another commission member, told Krizek that lawmakers could consider keeping it at 1,000 feet to ensure stores in cities aren’t too spread out and inaccessible for residents.

Another proposed change includes not letting a retail marijuana store be within 1,000 feet of places of religious worship, hospitals, schools, playgrounds, child care programs, substance use disorder treatment facilities or government facilities.

Aird said the cannabis legislation is still “fluid,” but she believes much of the debate during the 2026 legislative session will be around the local opt-out provision and potentially raising the 3.5% local tax.

Lawmakers on the cannabis commission agreed that public safety was their top priority during the December meeting, and included some tighter labeling and packaging rules in the proposed framework.

Aird told VPM News she’s preparing a standalone enforcement bill to work in tandem with the marketplace legislation. She said law enforcement shared concerns over a “lack of clarity” in how they should respond to potential cannabis-related crimes.

She said she didn’t have a draft of her bill, but she wants to give the Cannabis Control Authority “broad regulatory and enforcement authority” that could mirror what Virginia ABC does for alcohol.

“This can be the ability to do inspections, subpoenas and issue civil fines,” Aird said. “This can be something like being able to do license revocations and emergency suspensions when there’s a public health or safety issue at risk.”

She added that a request was made for a potential CCA-led task force with law enforcement and other agencies, but she doesn’t know if it would make the final bill. But Aird said she thinks her legislation could try to clear up rules for cannabis use while driving.

Ebbin said during the meeting that he believes the $25 fine for consuming cannabis in public is “too lenient” and could be addressed by lawmakers. Wise said those efforts would only target “people that are without homes, that are low-income, that live in public housing.”

“I hope that we see a diversity of small businesses and small cultivators be able to offer craft cannabis, to be able to work together with shared kitchens and shared spaces and cooperative environments,” Wise said about the future of Virginia’s cannabis market.

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