Virginia’s decriminalization of marijuana possession has led to a thriving illicit market throughout the Commonwealth, but efforts to plug the illicit market with a legal one are raising more questions than answers.
“Law enforcement is confused, they don’t know what is legal or not legal, commonwealth's attorneys are confused," said Ngiste Abebe with the marijuana equity outfit KND Group at Monday’s meeting of the Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market. "And consumers are confused.”
According to a 2020 report, Virginia’s illicit market could be in the billions of dollars; the commonwealth has only legalized sales through medical retail; that's allowed an illegal market to flourish. But if you allow localities to opt out of legal retail like they’ve done in New York, Abebe warned it could prop up illicit sales in dry areas.
“They’re struggling now because illicit shops they don’t have any oversight over popping up, so now they’re dealing with different types of enforcement problems because their constituents want to buy,” Abebe said of more conservative localities in Long Island which have struggled to keep their counties dry despite local bans.
Tazewell County Republican Delegate Will Morefield signaled his support for legal retail early in the debate after saying his constituents were consuming unsafe products. He asked Abebe Monday about education campaigns for localities that may be considering opting out.
“If you’re saying these are true, unintentional consequences of opting out and the impact it could have with the illicit market,” Morefield said.
Abebe said most states allow some kind of opt out, but Maryland didn’t. Their legalization effort, passed in 2023, is still rolling out so it’s unclear what impact it’s having on the illicit market.
She also pointed to one enforcement trick some states have taken up: allowing enforcers to cite retailers when selling a product labeled as pot, charging them more quickly under truth in advertising laws as opposed to the laborious process of testing products for drugs before filing criminal charges.
"Enforcers are taking illicit retailers at their word," she told Radio IQ after her committee appearance.
There’s still much to debate as far as Virginia’s legal retail market future goes, as well as a Gubernatorial race that could see the entire effort nixed if Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears follows in Governor Glenn Youngkin’s disinterested footsteps.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger has signaled her support for the effort.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
