A Virginia legislative panel this week declined to advance a invoice to control retail hashish gross sales, successfully killing the proposal that will have set the stage for leisure marijuana gross sales to start by 2024. The measure, Senate Bill 1133 from Democratic Senator Adam Ebbin, was rejected by a Home of Delegates subcommittee on Tuesday with a 5-3 vote alongside occasion traces, with the panel’s Republican majority opposed.
Leisure marijuana was legalized in Virginia in July 2021 with laws that enables adults 21 and older to own as much as one ounce of weed and develop as much as 4 hashish vegetation at residence. The laws required one other vote by lawmakers to authorize regulated gross sales of adult-use hashish and set a goal date of January 1, 2024, to launch authorized gross sales of leisure pot. However up to now, the Home of Delegates’ Republican majority, which took management within the 2022 basic election, has didn’t assist a invoice to arrange a authorized framework for the regulation of leisure marijuana gross sales.
“It’s authorized to own small quantities of hashish, it’s authorized to develop your personal hashish,” Ebbin said earlier than the subcommittee voted to kill the invoice. “But we’re form of dragging our toes on establishing a retail market that might present a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in tax income, might present a examined product for adults and may very well be saved out of the arms of kids.”
Ebbin’s invoice, which is analogous to a measure he sponsored final 12 months that additionally failed to achieve approval in committee, would have allowed gross sales of leisure marijuana to start by January 1, 2024. Gross sales would initially launch in present medical marijuana dispensaries and companies owned by individuals residing in “traditionally deprived communities.”
The laws additionally would have allowed the Virginia Hashish Management Authority to start issuing licenses for brand new leisure hashish companies on July 1, 2024. The measure was handed by the Democratic-controlled Senate final week by a vote of 24-16 that included assist from some Republican senators.
On Tuesday, a Common Legal guidelines subcommittee voted to desk Senate Invoice 1133 with out dialogue, possible killing the invoice for the rest of the 2023 legislative session. The invoice may very well be revisited at a later date, however the proposal might be lifeless till lawmakers reconvene in 2024.
Republican Governor Centered On Delta-8 THC
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who additionally was elected in 2022, has formally mentioned that he has “no place” on laws to authorize and regulate retail gross sales of adult-use hashish. However a Youngkin administration official, Chief Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Parker Slaybaugh, spoke towards Ebbin’s Senate Invoice 1133 at Tuesday’s subcommittee assembly.
Slaybaugh famous that Youngkin is concentrated on growing a coverage to manage unregulated hemp merchandise together with delta-8 THC. Final month, the governor referred to as on lawmakers to move a invoice that will regulate intoxicating hemp merchandise.
“The invoice I’m monitoring and searching for is a invoice that offers with hemp and delta-8 and the laws and client security round these merchandise,” Youngkin said final month. “And proper now, we have now merchandise which might be being mislabeled and missold and being focused towards kids.”
Advocates for regulating leisure marijuana gross sales say that failing to take action is basically liable for the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp merchandise, which will be simply bought all through Virginia at fuel stations and comfort shops. Nevertheless, the Home of Delegates has declined to advance two further payments to control leisure marijuana gross sales in committee this legislative session, together with Home Invoice 1464, sponsored by Republican Delegate Keith Hodges, and Home Invoice 1750 from Republican Delegate Michael Webert.