Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) on Tuesday vetoed a bill to create an adult-use cannabis market after lawmakers rejected her substitute proposal last month.
Although she said on the campaign trail that she would sign a cannabis sales proposal, Spanberger’s veto continues a three-year precedent established by her predecessor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who vetoed two cannabis sales measures back-to-back in 2024 and 2025. The move all but guarantees there will be no further progress on the issue until the next legislative session in 2027.
The governor’s veto message claims the legislation “would establish a retail marketplace for cannabis products without the timeline, structure, or resources to be successfully implemented.”
Her substitute proposal sought to push the market’s launch date back from January 1, 2027, to July 1, 2027, reduce the number of retailers at launch, and increase penalties for criminal behavior.
Spanberger noted in a statement that she still shares the General Assembly’s “goal of establishing a safe, legal, and well-regulated cannabis retail marketplace in the Commonwealth,” but suggested that the proposal sent by lawmakers lacked a “regulatory framework … fully prepared to provide strong oversight from day one.”
The legislation’s sponsors, Del. Paul Krizek (D) and Sen. Lashresce Aird (D), said that the veto only continues the unusual situation in Virginia, where it’s legal to possess and consume cannabis, but it cannot be commercially traded.
“Once again, Virginia’s efforts to establish a safe, regulated and equitable adult-use cannabis marketplace has been halted despite years of work, public input and broad recognition that the status quo is failing Virginians.” — Aird, via the Virginia Mercury
The move comes after Spanberger last week signed a bill establishing a resentencing process for some cannabis-related felony convictions.
“Governor Spanberger’s veto of adult-use cannabis sales legislation is a serious mistake,” said Stephanie Shepard, executive director of the Last Prisoner Project, an organization advocating for the release of individuals incarcerated over cannabis-related convictions. “It does not make sense for Virginia to recognize the harms of cannabis prohibition by signing marijuana resentencing into law while continuing to block a regulated market for the same substance,” Shepard said in a statement. “Without legal adult-use sales, consumers remain unprotected, small businesses are left waiting, and communities most impacted by prohibition are denied a fair opportunity to participate in the legal cannabis economy.”
JM Pedini, Development Director of NORML and Executive Director of Virginia’s NORML chapter, also issued a statement condemning the veto:
“Governor Spanberger’s veto is a profound disappointment to the many Virginia voters who believed her when she said on the campaign trail that she supported establishing a regulated adult-use cannabis market. It is also a slap in the face to the years of serious work undertaken by lawmakers, policy experts, advocates, public health stakeholders, and regulators who spent more than half a decade researching, debating, and carefully crafting this legislation. Rather than build upon that work, the Governor dismissed it in favor of out-of-touch proposals to recriminalize cannabis consumers, proposals that lawmakers rightly rejected,” they said.
