by Ernie Smith
When it comes to Virginia’s approach to legal cannabis, the strategy appears to be “smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.”
Despite recreational marijuana being legal since 2021, retail cannabis has struggled to break through GOP opposition. But at the start of 2026, Democrats are fully in power in both the legislature and governor’s office—and Democratic lawmakers want to make it happen. Could that be enough to clear the air for retail pot?
Norfolk attorney and cannabis law expert Charlene Morring of Morring Law PLLC thinks it’s definitely possible, but warns it’s not a done deal. Despite Abigail Spanberger in the governor’s office and detailed proposals on the table, she sees a proposed November timeline for legal stores to be overly optimistic.
“At one point, the Democrats had an opportunity to get it done—and they didn’t get it done,” Morring says. “We need to get this over the line. And so I’m hoping that [Spanberger] stays true to it, but you just never know.”
Slow & Steady
The hesitation is understandable, given the traditional challenges of the legal weed market. Virginia’s recent governors have, to varying degrees, held back progress on retail cannabis. Democrat Ralph Northam, recovering from a high-profile political scandal, chose to favor decriminalization, while Glenn Youngkin and Republicans ultimately blocked such efforts from passage.
Spanberger, the state’s first female governor, could face unforeseen challenges in implementing her agenda, just as Northam did.
But on the plus side, lawmakers have had a chance to study the nuances of the regulations to ensure each part of the retail ecosystem, including growing and the placement of retail stores. Virginia’s Cannabis Control Authority has proposed as many as 350 stores statewide, and is planning to prevent localities from opting out of the recreational market. “That is absolutely huge,” Morring says.
The reason? It discourages localities from getting an upper hand in the market or limiting access, while still allowing them to set local taxes—an approach similar to Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. “By removing the option for them to opt out of recreational sales, it puts them on a more even playing field,” she adds.
This restrictive approach, evoking the state’s network of ABC stores, could also prevent out-of-state players from dominating the market, in favor of Virginia-based interests.
“I’ve always said this, and I’ll continue to say it: If Virginia is going to do this thing the right way, then we have to put Virginia first,” she says.
Lessons From Hemp
One plus side of the long wait? The state got an up-close view of a poor implementation of legalization from the federal government. By removing hemp from the list of controlled substances, the 2018 Farm Bill created a federal loophole that emerged as a tough-to-regulate mail-order market for CBD gummies and THC-laced sodas.
Virginia responded by passing S.B. 903, which tightly restricted the amount of THC in hemp-derived retail products sold in the state. The resulting law, which some hemp farmers have described as unmanageable, was far stricter than federal law—and ultimately upheld by a federal appeals court last year.
Morring believes that the controversy around hemp ultimately reflects the state’s challenges in launching a retail cannabis market, which encouraged some growers to look for a “bypass.” But there’s a silver lining in the law being upheld—it ensures that Virginia’s path forward is a well-regulated market that prevents out-of-state players from dominating.
“I don’t think we’re going to have those concerns when it comes to THC, because typically in any type of THC retail market, there’s just a great sense of transparency, which wasn’t necessarily there [with hemp],” she says. “And I think they were pushing the envelope.”
And with a recent federal appropriations bill likely to close the farm bill loophole at the federal level, the state is better positioned to offer an alternative.
“I’m not a big fan of it [the appeals court ruling], but there needed to be a bright line,” she shares.
State Laws, Federal Wild Cards
The hemp saga ultimately reflects the way that the federal government can reshape the discussion at the state level. For example, President Trump recently signed an executive order ordering the reclassification of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.
Among other things, Morring says this could ultimately benefit retailers and growers by making it easier to access banking resources and tax deductions, which have previously been off-limits to retail cannabis, allowing them to “to operate essentially like a regular business.” This could make life easier for budding entrepreneurs, especially growers facing capital-intensive startup costs.
But ultimately, she says, it’s the state-level law that should set the stage for what legal weed looks like in Virginia—even if it takes longer than advocates would like.
“I am just very hopeful, as many Virginians are, that it gets passed, and we can finally get this done,” she says.
