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A Senate panel is set to weigh legislation on Thursday that would create a legal adult-use retail market for marijuana in Virginia and allow sales to begin as soon as 2025.
Although Democrats three years ago legalized the possession of recreational marijuana in the commonwealth, the state has upheld a prohibition on regulated sales and purchases, effectively creating an illicit market that has skyrocketed from $1.8 billion a year to $2.4 billion in 2023, according to New Frontier , a group that studies the cannabis industry.
The Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Subcommittee on Cannabis will take up two proposals at its meeting. Both measures would task the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority with regulating and testing cannabis products for a marketplace that lawmakers hope would benefit not just the big pharmaceutical companies already operating in the statewide medical marijuana market, but eventually would spur the growth of small businesses and micro-growers, including those that are minority-owned.