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Drug Policy Watch · State Brief 2026

Virginia

Snapshot (structured)

Adult-use cannabis
Legal to possess and home grow since July 1 2021, but still no legal adult-use retail market. A June 16 2026 budget compromise now sets recreational sales to begin July 1 2027.
Medical cannabis
Legal and operating. No statutory list of qualifying conditions, practitioner discretion. Five vertically integrated pharmaceutical processors, roughly 23 dispensing facilities. Regulated by the Cannabis Control Authority (CCA).
Home grow
Legal. Up to 4 plants per household for adults 21+.
Intoxicating hemp / hemp THC
Heavily restricted. State law caps total THC at 2 mg per package (25:1 CBD:THC carve-out), effectively banning most delta-8, delta-9 edibles, and THCA flower. State is also exposed to the new federal hemp ban effective November 12 2026.
Psychedelics
Not decriminalized. No therapeutic-access program in force. Study/advisory and decriminalization bills have repeatedly stalled.
Broad decriminalization
Cannabis decriminalized (2020) and legalized (2021). No broader decriminalization of other drugs.
Harm reduction
Active. State-funded naloxone, fentanyl test strips, xylazine and benzodiazepine test strips, and authorized syringe services (Comprehensive Harm Reduction).
Governor (party)
Abigail Spanberger (Democrat), inaugurated January 17 2026, first woman elected governor of Virginia.
Legislature control
Democratic trifecta. House 64-36 Democratic, Senate 21-19 Democratic.
Citizen ballot initiatives allowed
No. Virginia has no statewide citizen initiative or referendum process.
Enclosure pressure score
4/5

Cannabis

Virginia legalized adult possession and home cultivation effective July 1 2021 (simple possession of up to 1 ounce in public, up to 4 plants per household, with no legal way to buy adult-use product). That created a five-year "legal but not purchasable" gap that persists in 2026.

The retail-market fight defined 2026. In March 2026 the General Assembly passed companion bills HB 642 (lead sponsor Del. Paul Krizek) and SB 542 (lead sponsor Sen. Lashrecse Aird) to stand up a regulated adult-use market administered by the Cannabis Control Authority. House vote 64-32, Senate 21-18 on March 14 2026 per the CannabisVirginia tracker. Gov. Spanberger returned the bills on April 13 2026 with substitute amendments, including a roughly six-month delay; the legislature rejected her amendments on April 22 2026 and sent the original back. On May 19 2026 Spanberger vetoed the bill, saying she remained open to legal sales but that the oversight and enforcement framework was not yet ready. This was the third consecutive year a Virginia governor blocked a retail market, and the first time a Democratic governor did so under a Democratic trifecta. Prior vetoes were by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 and 2025. - https://virginiamercury.com/2026/05/19/spanberger-vetoes-cannabis-bill-stalling-legal-sales-again/ - https://www.vpm.org/generalassembly/2026-05-19/spanberger-retail-marijuana-market-veto-krizek-aird-higgs-wise - https://foleyhoag.com/news-and-insights/blogs/cannabis-and-the-law/2026/may/stalemate-over-virginia-adult-use-cannabis-bill-governor-faces-may-22-2026-deadline/

After the veto, the governor and the bill sponsors reached a compromise through the budget process, announced June 16 2026. Under that deal: recreational sales begin July 1 2027; the CCA begins accepting license applications February 1 2027; a maximum of 350 retail establishment licenses; the public possession limit rises from 1 ounce to 2 ounces; and the cannabis excise tax starts at 6% and rises to 8% in 2029. - https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2026/june-releases/name-1119669-en.html - https://www.vpm.org/generalassembly/2026-06-16/general-assembly-aird-krizek-spanberger-cannabis-thc-marijuana - https://wtop.com/virginia/2026/06/va-governor-lawmakers-reach-agreement-on-retail-cannabis-market/ - https://virginiabusiness.com/spanberger-legislators-come-to-marijuana-retail-compromise/

Note on conflicting figures: the CannabisVirginia tracker page (last verified March 2026, before the veto) describes the original HB 642 with sales beginning January 1 2027, a 2.5 ounce public limit, a 6% excise plus 5.3% sales tax plus optional 1 to 3.5% local tax, and larger license caps (350 retail, 450 cultivation, 60 processors, 25 wholesalers, 100 microbusinesses, 50% of retail licenses reserved for social equity, $10 million conversion fee for existing medical processors). Those terms reflect the vetoed standalone bill, not the June budget deal. Treat the June 16 2026 budget terms as the current operative framework and the March terms as the prior vetoed version. https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation

Medical cannabis is legal and operating. Virginia has no statutory qualifying-condition list; a board-licensed practitioner may certify any patient who they judge could benefit. Since July 2022 a written certification plus valid ID is sufficient to purchase; registration with the CCA is optional (required only for a physical card). Oversight moved from the Board of Pharmacy to the CCA on January 1 2024. - https://www.vanorml.org/faqs - https://cannabisvirginia.org/virginia-law/medical-program

Market structure (medical): five vertically integrated "pharmaceutical processors," historically one per Health Service Area, each permitted to operate additional dispensing facilities in its area. As of early 2026 the five operators were AYR Virginia, Jushi Holdings, Green Thumb Industries, The Cannabist Company, and Verano, running roughly 23 dispensing facilities. This vertically integrated, capped structure is the consolidation backbone the retail market is being built on. - https://cca.virginia.gov/medicalcannabis/processors - https://virginiastatecannabis.org/cannabis-business

Hemp

Virginia is one of the most restrictive states on intoxicating hemp. SB 903 (effective July 1 2023) replaced the federal delta-9-only standard with a total-THC formula and added a 2 mg total-THC per-package cap, with a 25:1 CBD:THC carve-out for higher-CBD products. In practice this bans most nationally sold intoxicating hemp products, including delta-8 products and THCA hemp flower. - https://vicentellp.com/insights/virginia-cannabis-legalization-faq-2026/ - https://www.cannabisregulations.ai/state-legality/virginia-thca

Federal exposure: Congress enacted H.R. 5371 (the late-2025 continuing appropriations package), whose Section 781 narrows the federal definition of hemp to a total-THC standard and caps finished consumable hemp products at 0.4 mg total THC per container, effectively banning most intoxicating hemp products nationwide. The change takes effect November 12 2026, with a one-year grace period to sell compliant inventory. Because Virginia already bans most of these products, the federal change largely reinforces existing state policy rather than upending it, but it tightens the national supply chain Virginia retailers and hemp businesses draw on. - https://www.regulatoryoversight.com/2025/12/congress-narrows-federal-definition-of-hemp-effectively-banning-most-intoxicating-hemp-products/ - https://vicentellp.com/insights/2026-federal-hemp-ban-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-consumable-hemp-products/ - https://thehazeconnect.com/blogs/learn/november-12-2026-federal-hemp-deadline-every-state

Recent state action: HB 642 as passed would have given the CCA authority over intoxicating hemp-derived products (closing the age-verification and testing gap), but that bill was vetoed; whether equivalent hemp authority survives in the June 2026 budget framework is unconfirmed. https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation

Psychedelics

Virginia has not decriminalized psychedelics and has no therapeutic-access program in force. Reform efforts have repeatedly advanced in the Senate and then died in the House. In a recent session Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (now Lieutenant Governor) carried a bill (reported as SB 1101) to create a state advisory council on FDA breakthrough therapies including psilocybin and MDMA; it passed the Senate 40-0 but the House Committee on Rules set it aside. A separate psilocybin decriminalization measure was also killed in committee. - https://www.marijuanamoment.net/virginia-senate-passes-psychedelic-therapy-bill-while-house-advances-retail-marijuana-sales-legalization-measure/ - https://www.marijuanamoment.net/virginia-house-panel-kills-psychedelics-bill-that-had-already-been-approved-by-the-senate/ - https://outlawreport.com/virginia-senate-committee-kills-psilocybin-decriminalization-bill/

Whether a 2026 psychedelics bill was filed and its status is unconfirmed in the sources gathered. Check the live trackers below.

Broader drug policy

Decriminalization: Cannabis was decriminalized in 2020 and legalized in 2021. There is no broad decriminalization of other controlled substances in Virginia.

Harm reduction: Virginia operates an active state program. The Virginia Department of Health distributes no-cost naloxone, fentanyl test strips, xylazine test strips, and benzodiazepine test strips through local health departments, community service boards, authorized Comprehensive Harm Reduction sites, free clinics, and FQHCs. Authorized syringe services programs operate (for example the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition mobile unit). The Comprehensive Harm Reduction Partner Program (CHRPP) lets law enforcement, fire services, and schools receive free nasal naloxone after REVIVE! training. - https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/naloxone/naloxone-distribution-to-community-partners/ - https://virginiaopioidtoolkit.org/toolkit/harm-reduction/ - https://www.overdosepreventionstrategies.org/virginia-laws/

Sentencing and expungement: see Equity and expungement below. Overdose/treatment policy is funded substantially through Virginia's opioid abatement settlement framework. https://virginiaopioidtoolkit.org/toolkit/naloxone/

Political landscape

Governor: Abigail Spanberger (Democrat), inaugurated January 17 2026, Virginia's first woman elected governor and the 75th governor. She campaigned in favor of a regulated retail market but vetoed the 2026 standalone bill citing readiness concerns, then negotiated a budget-based path to sales in 2027. - https://virginiamercury.com/2026/01/17/special-coverage-inauguration-of-virginias-75th-governor-abigail-spanberger/ - https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/17/politics/abigail-spanberger-virginia-governor-inauguration

Legislature: Democratic trifecta. House of Delegates 64-36 Democratic, Speaker Don Scott (D), Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D), Minority Leader Terry Kilgore (R). Senate 21-19 Democratic, Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D), Minority Leader Ryan McDougle (R), with Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi (D) presiding as President of the Senate. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/164th_Virginia_General_Assembly - https://ballotpedia.org/2026_Virginia_legislative_session

Reform champions: Del. Paul Krizek (lead House sponsor of retail, chair of the relevant joint commission per the tracker) and Sen. Lashrecse Aird (lead Senate sponsor) are the central retail-market advocates; Sen. Adam Ebbin was the original 2021 legalization sponsor and a long-time advocate. Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi has championed psychedelic-therapy study legislation. Named opponents/skeptics: Gov. Spanberger has been the principal brake on a near-term retail launch despite party alignment; full retail opponents in this Democratic-controlled Assembly are otherwise unconfirmed (Republican leaders Kilgore and McDougle's specific cannabis positions in 2026 are unconfirmed). https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation

Ballot initiatives

Virginia does NOT allow statewide citizen-initiated ballot measures (no initiative or referendum). Policy change must run through the General Assembly and governor, which is why the cannabis fight has played out entirely as bills, vetoes, and budget negotiation rather than a ballot campaign. No pending citizen cannabis or drug-policy ballot measure exists because the mechanism does not exist. (General Virginia government structure; no source asserts an initiative process.)

Equity and expungement

Social equity: the vetoed HB 642 reserved 50% of retail licenses for social equity / impact applicants and directed 30% of tax revenue to a Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, with impact-applicant criteria including prior cannabis convictions, residence in disproportionately enforced communities, and income thresholds. Whether these exact equity provisions survive in the June 2026 budget framework is unconfirmed and should be checked once budget language is published. https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation

Expungement and record sealing: a major record-sealing law (passed 2021, substantially amended in 2025, repeatedly delayed) takes effect July 1 2026. It provides, for the first time in Virginia, sealing of certain misdemeanor and low-level felony convictions, including automatic sealing of eligible cannabis records, so individuals no longer need to petition. Virginia State Police have already sealed roughly 400,000 marijuana-related records (about 330,000 misdemeanor possession and 64,000 misdemeanor distribution). Resentencing relief (reported HB 26 / SB 62) lets people still incarcerated for now-legal or reduced offenses petition for resentencing. - https://ccresourcecenter.org/2025/06/30/virginia-enacts-significant-record-reforms-in-2025/ - https://cleanslatevirginia.com/major-changes-made-to-virginias-new-expungement-law/ - https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation

Who benefits/excluded: automatic sealing benefits people with low-level cannabis records; the capped, vertically integrated medical operators are positioned to dominate early retail, which advocates warn could fence out small and equity applicants despite the equity reservation.

Market and barriers

Hard numbers (mix of vetoed-bill terms and the June 2026 budget deal, flagged): - Adult-use excise tax: 6% rising to 8% in 2029 (June 2026 deal). The vetoed bill listed 6% excise plus 5.3% state sales tax plus optional 1 to 3.5% local tax (effective ~12 to 16%). - Retail license cap: 350 (both the vetoed bill and the June deal cite 350 retail). Vetoed bill also listed 450 cultivation, 60 processors, 25 wholesalers, 100 microbusinesses, max 5 licenses per person. - Conversion fee for existing medical processors to enter retail: $10 million (vetoed bill); status in budget framework unconfirmed. - Social equity set-aside: 50% of retail licenses (vetoed bill); status in budget framework unconfirmed. - Application open date: February 1 2027 (June deal). Sales start: July 1 2027 (June deal). - Medical market: 5 pharmaceutical processors, roughly 23 dispensing facilities as of early 2026. - https://www.vpm.org/generalassembly/2026-06-16/general-assembly-aird-krizek-spanberger-cannabis-thc-marijuana - https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation - https://cca.virginia.gov/medicalcannabis/processors

Capital and residency requirements and exact license fees under the final framework are unconfirmed pending published budget/regulatory language.

Enclosure read

Who is fenced out: ordinary Virginians who can legally possess and grow but still cannot legally buy, pushing them into the gifting "gray market" or the medical channel; small and social-equity entrepreneurs who face a capped license universe (350 retail) and a structure built around five deep-pocketed, vertically integrated multistate operators (AYR, Jushi, Green Thumb, Cannabist, Verano) that hold a $10 million-fee path into retail. Intoxicating-hemp small retailers are squeezed by both the 2 mg state cap and the November 12 2026 federal ban.

Who is consolidating: the five incumbent medical MSOs, who have a multi-year head start, brand presence, and capital to absorb conversion fees and compete for the capped retail licenses.

Justification for 4/5: Possession and home grow are genuinely legal and decriminalization/expungement are real openings, which keeps this off a 5. But five years of no legal retail, three straight gubernatorial vetoes (now including a Democratic governor under a trifecta), a hard license cap, a heavy MSO incumbency, a near-total ban on intoxicating hemp, and no citizen-initiative escape valve all point to a heavily fenced market controlled top-down by the executive and a small set of incumbents. That is a 4.

What to watch next

Regulators

Federal exposure (2026)

Virginia sits in an unusual spot, legal possession and home grow since 2021 but no operating adult-use retail, so the 2026 federal moves land on it differently than on full retail states.

Rescheduling and 280E. The DOJ/DEA order signed April 22, 2026 and effective April 28, 2026 (91 FR 22714) moved only FDA-approved cannabis drugs and state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III, while recreational cannabis stays Schedule I. For Virginia this is a split benefit. The five vertically integrated medical processors (AYR, Jushi, Green Thumb, Cannabist, Verano) are the operators that gain real relief, because Schedule III ends Section 280E for the medical category, letting them deduct ordinary business expenses on their medical lines and improving margins and cash position. The planned 2027 retail market, however, is recreational, which stays Schedule I, so retail sales when they begin in July 2027 will not get 280E relief. The practical result, the same incumbents who already dominate the medical market get a federal tax tailwind on their medical operations precisely as they prepare to convert into the capped retail market, widening their capital advantage over new and equity applicants who have no medical book to lean on. Schedule III does not legalize cannabis, does not authorize interstate commerce, and does not cover state recreational businesses, so it changes nothing about Virginia's legal architecture, only the tax math for one set of incumbents.

The November 12 2026 hemp cliff. FY2026 agriculture appropriations (Section 781, Rep. Andy Harris R-MD) narrowed the federal hemp definition to a total-THC standard of about 0.4 mg THC per container, recriminalizing roughly 90 to 95 percent of intoxicating hemp products effective November 12 2026. The H.R.7010 delay was not enacted and the 2026 Farm Bill (H.R.7567) keeps the ban. For Virginia the federal cliff aligns with state law rather than disrupting it, because Virginia's 2 mg total-THC per-package cap already bans most of the same products. The practical effect is twofold. First, the federal ban removes the out-of-state and online supply that Virginia consumers and gray-market sellers have used to route around the state cap, so enforcement gets easier and the gray channel narrows. Second, it forecloses any near-term hope that hemp-derived THC could serve as a legal substitute while the licensed retail market is still a year away, pushing demand toward the gifting gray market, the medical channel, or simply waiting for July 2027.

Banking. SAFER Banking is stalled in Congress, so cannabis businesses in Virginia, both the current medical processors and the future retail licensees, remain cut off from normal banking, lending, and card processing and operate cash-heavy. This compounds the capital barrier, deep-pocketed multistate operators can self-finance and absorb the friction, while small and social-equity applicants who most need outside capital are the ones the banking gap hits hardest.

Psychedelics. Federally, psilocybin, MDMA, and ibogaine remain Schedule I. An April 18 2026 executive order plus FDA priority vouchers fast-track FDA review, but no approval has issued. Virginia's own pathway has been the advisory and study route (Lt. Gov. Hashmi's prior breakthrough-therapies bill, reported as SB 1101, passed the Senate but died in the House), which is built to track exactly that federal FDA process. The state's psychedelics future is therefore gated on Washington, no FDA approval means no near-term state therapeutic access, and the bills that keep dying in the Virginia House are designed to wait for the federal signal rather than move ahead of it.

Harm reduction. Virginia runs an active, state-funded harm reduction program (naloxone, fentanyl test strips, xylazine and benzodiazepine test strips, authorized syringe services). It is directly exposed to the April 24 2026 SAMHSA guidance that bars federal funds for fentanyl test strips, clean syringes, and sterile water, while still supporting naloxone. The practical effect, Virginia's naloxone distribution is safe, but the test-strip and syringe-services components that rely on federal dollars are at risk and will need state opioid-abatement settlement money or other state funds to backfill if federal support is pulled. Naloxone stays funded either way.

Patient access and rights

This section covers what Virginia law does and does not protect for a medical cannabis patient: use inside a hospital, and the broader rights that follow a patient into work, housing, parenting, an organ transplant list, and school. It is information, not legal advice, and it reflects the law as of July 2026. Each point links to the primary statute.

Hospital access (Ryan's Law): Virginia enacted a Ryan's Law protection in 2026. Senate Bill 332 and House Bill 75, signed by Governor Spanberger, allow patient use in health care facilities, subject to facility rules. Seven states have now enacted a Ryan's Law protection (California in 2021, and Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington in 2026), with Pennsylvania's bill pending.

Broader protections: Virginia protects a patient in a few areas. It bars employment discrimination against a lawful medical cannabis user under Virginia Code Section 40.1-27.4. A separate 2026 law, House Bill 942, enacted as Chapter 711 of the Acts of Assembly and effective July 1, 2026, provides that a parent may not be denied custody or visitation based only on the lawful use of a legally authorized substance, which covers a Virginia patient's authorized medical cannabis use. And Virginia Code Section 18.2-251.1:2 lets facility staff administer cannabis to a certified patient, though that is a protection for the facility and its staff more than a broad guarantee for the patient. A review of the rest of Virginia law found no protection for housing, placement on an organ transplant list, or school enrollment.

Out-of-state patients: Virginia's program serves Virginia residents; it does not recognize other states' medical cannabis cards.

The federal picture: the April 2026 federal move of state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III did not change any of this. Schedule III does not make dispensary cannabis a lawful prescription medicine, and it creates no hospital-use right or employment, housing, custody, transplant, or school protection; the protections and limits above are creatures of Virginia law, not federal law.

Sources: Virginia's Ryan's Law, Senate Bill 332 and House Bill 75 (2026); employment, Virginia Code Section 40.1-27.4; parental and custody rights, House Bill 942 (Chapter 711, 2026); facility administration, Virginia Code Section 18.2-251.1:2.

Related reading from Drug Policy Watch: the Federal Drug Policy Brief, the Schedule III rescheduling explainer, and the 50-State Matrix.

Analysis: the enclosure read in depth

Who is fenced out. The clearest losers are ordinary Virginians who can legally possess (now 2 oz under the budget deal) and grow up to four plants but still have no legal place to buy until July 2027, a six-year possession-without-purchase gap that channels them into the gifting gray market or the medical system. Next are small and social-equity entrepreneurs, who face a hard 350-license retail cap, no banking under stalled SAFER, and competition from incumbents that just got a federal 280E tax break on their medical operations. Intoxicating-hemp retailers are squeezed from both directions, the state 2 mg cap and the November 12 2026 federal ban, which together erase most of their product line. Because Virginia has no citizen initiative or referendum, none of these groups has a ballot-box escape valve, every change must clear the General Assembly and a governor who has already vetoed retail.

Who consolidates. The five vertically integrated medical MSOs are the structural winners. They have a multi-year operating head start, brand and real estate, the capital to absorb conversion fees and the cash-heavy banking environment, and now, after April 2026, federal 280E relief on their medical lines that improves their balance sheets right as the conversion-to-retail window opens. The retail market is being built directly on top of this capped, MSO-dominated medical backbone, so consolidation is baked into the design rather than incidental.

State-plus-federal interaction. The two layers reinforce each other in the incumbents' favor. Federally, Schedule III rewards the medical operators (not recreational), the hemp ban removes their cheap competition, and stalled banking keeps capital scarce in a way only the well-capitalized can tolerate. At the state level, the veto-then-budget path produced a capped 350-license market with a February 2027 application date and July 2027 sales, administered top-down by the CCA and the executive. Federal enclosure (favoring large incumbents, fencing out small actors and hemp) and state enclosure (a cap, no initiative, executive control of timing) point the same direction.

What to watch. Whether the enrolled budget language preserves the 50 percent social-equity license set-aside and the equity reinvestment fund from the vetoed HB 642, or whether those erode (currently unconfirmed). Whether the $10 million medical-to-retail conversion fee survives, which would further tilt entry toward incumbents (unconfirmed). Whether Virginia backfills any federal harm-reduction cuts with settlement funds. Whether the July 2027 launch holds or slips a fourth time. And whether the automatic record-sealing rollout (effective July 1 2026) actually clears the roughly 400,000 marijuana records as advertised.

Commons counter-moves present. Two genuine openings keep this from being a fully closed system. Home grow (four plants per household) gives every adult a lawful, non-market supply that no cap or incumbent controls, a real commons that survives regardless of how the retail market consolidates. And automatic record sealing (effective July 1 2026, no petition required) clears the criminal-record barrier for hundreds of thousands of people, including the equity-eligible, without making them pay or navigate a process. These are real decommodifying, decarceral moves running counter to the enclosure trend.

Justifying the 4/5. The openings (legal possession, home grow, automatic sealing, a stated equity set-aside) are real, which is why this is not a 5. But the dominant facts are enclosure, six years of no legal retail, three straight gubernatorial vetoes now including a Democratic governor under a Democratic trifecta, a hard 350-license cap, a market deliberately built on five incumbent MSOs who just gained federal 280E relief on their medical lines, no banking, a near-total hemp ban now reinforced federally, and no citizen-initiative escape valve. The structure is heavily fenced and controlled top-down by the executive and a small set of incumbents, with home grow and record sealing as the meaningful exceptions. That balance is a 4.

Active legislation (2026)

This list is not exhaustive. For the full and current docket, use the live trackers: Virginia LIS (https://lis.virginia.gov/), the CCA legislative update (https://cca.virginia.gov/news/2025-general-assembly-cannabis-related-legislation-update).

Beyond the live tracker

These measures are not in the live bill list below: some are not bills (executive orders, rules, referendums, or budgets), and some are proposals or prior-session measures the live tracker does not currently carry.

  • Budget cannabis language (2026-2028 biennium) Retail market via budget: sales July 1 2027, applications Feb 1 2027, 350 retail licenses, 2 oz limit, 6%-to-8% tax (Agreement announced June 16 2026)
  • HB 942 Cannabis use not sole basis in custody/CPS proceedings (Reported passed)
  • SB 1101 (prior session) Advisory council on breakthrough therapies (psilocybin, MDMA) (Passed Senate 40-0, set aside in House Rules)
Bill Title/Topic Chamber Status Sponsor(s)
HB 642 Retail adult-use cannabis market framework (CCA-administered) House Passed Assembly, VETOED by Gov. Spanberger May 19 2026 Del. Paul Krizek
SB 542 Retail adult-use cannabis market (companion to HB 642) Senate Passed Assembly, vetoed alongside HB 642 Sen. Lashrecse Aird
Budget cannabis language (2026-2028 biennium) Retail market via budget: sales July 1 2027, applications Feb 1 2027, 350 retail licenses, 2 oz limit, 6%-to-8% tax Both Agreement announced June 16 2026 Gov. Spanberger with Sen. Aird and Del. Krizek (specific budget item/amendment numbers unconfirmed)
HB 391 Medical cannabis labeling and home delivery improvements House Reported passed (139-0 unanimous on tracker; sponsor "Del. Askew" unconfirmed full name) Del. Askew (unconfirmed)
SB 1466 / HB 2723 Automatic sealing/expungement of cannabis records Both Passed 2025, effective July 1 2026 unconfirmed (verify on LegiScan)
HB 26 / SB 62 Resentencing relief for prior cannabis offenses Both Reported passed unconfirmed (verify on LegiScan)
HB 942 Cannabis use not sole basis in custody/CPS proceedings House Reported passed unconfirmed (verify on LegiScan)
SB 1101 (prior session) Advisory council on breakthrough therapies (psilocybin, MDMA) Senate Passed Senate 40-0, set aside in House Rules Sen. Ghazala Hashmi

Bill numbers HB 391, SB 1466/HB 2723, HB 26/SB 62, and HB 942 are drawn from the CannabisVirginia tracker and should be confirmed against LIS/LegiScan before citation; sponsor names other than Krizek, Aird, and Hashmi are marked unconfirmed. - https://cannabisvirginia.org/learn/recent-legislation - https://www.marijuanamoment.net/virginia-marijuana-bill-sponsors-push-back-against-governors-proposed-changes/ - https://legiscan.com/VA/bill/HB2723/2025

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A planning snapshot for 2026, not legal advice. Policy moves quickly; confirm any single detail against the cited sources before acting on it. Sponsor names are given where confirmable and marked unconfirmed otherwise.

About the author. Jessica Mantonya is the founder of Drug Policy Watch and Hold in Common. She also advises operators, advocates, and funders on regulatory strategy and anti-enclosure positioning. Work with her →

Sources