RICHMOND, Va. — Five years after making history as the first Southern state to legalize marijuana possession, Virginia has now created a legal pathway for selling cannabis to recreational users at retail stores.
Budget legislation signed into law Monday will permit as many as 350 cannabis retail locations to open throughout the state beginning July 1, 2027. The development represents another step in the growing trend of states establishing legal marijuana markets, even as the drug remains prohibited under federal law.
State Sen. Lashrecse Aird, a Democrat who has been a key figure in pushing the issue forward, issued a statement earlier this month explaining the need for the change. “Virginia legalized adult possession years ago, but without a regulated retail market, we left the illicit market to fill the gap,” she said. “This compromise gives us a smarter and safer path forward — one that protects consumers, keeps products tested and accurately labeled, and creates a legal marketplace that is affordable and accessible enough to actually compete.”
Virginia already operates a medical marijuana program through licensed dispensaries. Under the new law, state regulators will begin accepting applications for recreational retail licenses on February 1 — well ahead of the July 1, 2027 launch date for adult sales to those 21 and older.
The legislation also raises the legal possession limit from 1 ounce to 2 ounces and continues to allow residents to grow a limited number of plants at home for personal use.
In terms of revenue, the state will collect both an excise tax and a sales tax on cannabis purchases. Budget documents from the legislature project that combination will bring in approximately $51 million in state revenue during the program’s first year.
Democrats have largely driven Virginia’s legalization efforts, framing the issue as one of racial equity after state data revealed that Black Virginians were stopped, policed, and convicted at disproportionate rates for marijuana-related offenses. Republican lawmakers have mostly opposed legalization, with many citing concerns about public health and safety.
While legalization advocates broadly welcomed the new law, some raised objections to a provision that raises the civil penalty for consuming marijuana in public, warning it could lead to unequal enforcement along racial lines.
Chelsea Higgs Wise, a grassroots organizer whose organization Marijuana Justice was among the groups urging Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to reconsider that increased fine, nonetheless called the overall legislation a positive milestone after years of uncertainty. She noted that for the past five years, “Adults that want to reasonably consume have been confused, rightfully so.”
Across the country, marijuana is now legal in most states for either medical or recreational purposes, with roughly half of all states permitting recreational use, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy and policy tracking organization. Virginia continues to stand out in the South for its more permissive approach to cannabis.
At the federal level, however, marijuana remains illegal. In a notable shift, the Trump administration announced in April that it was reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous substance and speeding up the process for a wider reclassification.
Virginia’s path to this point has been a long one. Throughout the 2010s, the state gradually expanded medical marijuana access. In 2021, it became the first Southern state to legalize possession and home cultivation for adults 21 and over. However, lawmakers never completed a framework for recreational retail sales beyond the existing medical program.
A change in partisan control of state government following the November 2021 elections stalled progress for years. In 2024, then-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation that would have established a recreational retail market.
Gov. Spanberger, who took office in January 2026 after campaigning on a promise to set up a legal retail market, initially vetoed a Democratic bill that came out of this year’s legislative session. She later negotiated a compromise with lawmakers, and those agreed-upon provisions were folded into the state budget bill that received final passage Monday. The measure became law after lawmakers approved all of Spanberger’s amendments, according to the governor’s office.
