Virginia unlikely to lay framework for recreational marijuana sales

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – In 2021, Virginia became the first Southern state to legalize marijuana, adopting a policy change that allowed adults to possess and cultivate the drug. But lawmakers didn’t fully enact a framework for recreational retail sales.

Partisan gridlock thwarted any movement on the issue last year, and 2023 looks unlikely to be any different.

A Republican-led House panel defeated the Democrat-controlled Senate’s main surviving retail sales bill Tuesday. Other competing retail sales proposals were defeated earlier in the session.

Still alive are measures backed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin that aim to rein in the proliferation of hemp-derived products, including those containing delta-8 THC.