Lawmakers in a Virginia Senate committee final week superior a invoice that will set up an adult-use hashish market within the state, the Washington Post studies.
The Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Providers handed SB 448 in a 10-5 bipartisan vote however the invoice nonetheless must go a number of extra committees earlier than reaching the Senate ground. If adopted, the invoice would put into movement the regulation of hashish manufacturing and distribution, with adult-use gross sales to launch in Virginia by January 1, 2025.
Proponents of the invoice say that regulating adult-use hashish is a commonsense step ahead following the state’s legalization of hashish three years in the past and that licensed gross sales would scale back the danger of publicity to contaminated merchandise.
“We have already got a $3 billion adult-use hashish market. It’s simply being run by drug sellers who’re promoting untested, unlabeled, untaxed merchandise. We’re not creating the market. We’re regulating the market.” — Greg Habeeb, lobbyist for the Virginia Hashish Affiliation, by way of the Washington Publish
Lawmakers are nonetheless unsure, nonetheless, how the invoice would fare earlier than Gov. Glenn Youngking (R), whose administration said final yr that the governor had no plans to facilitate adult-use hashish gross sales whereas he’s in workplace.
“That is an space that I actually don’t have any curiosity in,” Youngkin advised reporters earlier this month. “There’s so many issues that we are able to work on that I feel we are able to get to the end line and … I simply don’t have lots of curiosity in urgent ahead with marijuana laws.”
Quite a few research, together with a current CDC evaluation, have prompt that having a regulated adult-use hashish market doesn’t result in a rise in underage hashish use; slightly, it might scale back youngsters’ entry to hashish.
Get every day hashish enterprise information updates. Subscribe