Charlottesville’s Greener Things, and other area licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, hope the legality around retail sales will be sorted out soon. Photo by Tristan Williams.
When Gov. Ralph Northam signed the 2021 Cannabis Control Act into law, retail sales of recreational marijuana were supposed to become legal this year. Yet, without establishing the framework for retail sales in the General Assembly, what was billed as a victory three years ago shifted into quasi-decriminalization. But some lawmakers are aiming to make full legalization a reality, while others are even going further, with legislation aimed at making the budding cannabis industry a fair playing field for retailers that are going up against pharmaceutical giants and billion-dollar corporations looking to be the first ones to sell legal weed in Virginia.
The bills, amended versions of one voted down in the General Assembly last year, are identical—HB 698 (sponsored by Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, in the House of Delegates), and SB 448 (co-sponsored by Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, and Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, in the state Senate)—and fully establish the framework under which licensed Virginia businesses entities could sell and distribute cannabis products. They also outline the means with which the state could control, regulate, and tax recreational marijuana, among other things in the voluminous, 81-page bill. These proposed bills would take effect January 1, 2025, with currently operating medical marijuana businesses allowed to begin applying and receiving licenses as early as July 1, 2024. Also included are adjustments to civil and criminal penalties of illegal possession and cultivation of hemp and marijuana, as well as illegal chemical alterations to cannabis and its derivatives.
HB 698 recently passed the House of Delegates with a 52-48 vote, mostly along party lines. The one outlier was Republican Del. Chris Obenshain, serving Montgomery and parts of Roanoke counties in southwest Virginia.
For shops like Charlottesville’s Greener Things, which has been eagerly waiting for the retail sales infrastructure to be put in place, the ever-changing legal landscape of the state’s cannabis laws makes it a precarious business to be in. Maurice Robinson, general manager of the Downtown Mall store, says it’s been a long three years.
“It has been a frustrating time,” he says. “Hemp regulations are constantly changing, making it difficult for a large [number] of small businesses to stay open in the area.” As a currently licensed and operating medical marijuana dispensary, Greener Things would be among those applying for the early business licenses available this July.
The biggest hurdle on the road to full legalization and retail sales right now appears to be the governor, as Glenn Youngkin has been quoted several times saying he’s not interested in signing legislation that would provide the framework to regulate recreational marijuana.
“What I want us to work on are areas that we can find a meeting of the mind and press forward for the betterment of Virginia,” Youngkin told Richmond’s WRIC-TV in January. The governor has refrained from threatening to veto any particular piece of legislation, however, and has expressed disinterest in repealing the Cannabis Control Act of 2021.
None of these advances in cannabis and hemp legalization should indicate that law enforcement’s watch over the substance has lapsed. In September of last year, Attorney General Jason Miyares spearheaded a multi-jurisdiction raid on several marijuana businesses in southwest Virginia that included nine counties and 29 different state and federal law enforcement organizations. The businesses involved were accused of drug and money laundering offenses, but the search warrants and court documents were sealed for six months, making further information about the investigation difficult to obtain.
It’s why Robinson says his number one priority is staying on top of the laws and remaining compliant.
“Greener Things provides a safe and trustworthy location to purchase safe, third-party tested cannabis products,” Robinson says. “All products are federally legal, and Virgina compliant.”
By the book
Marijuana legalization is still uneven in Virginia. Here’s what you can and can’t do with your greenery.
Possession: There’s no penalty for personal use at your own home. You can even share it with a friend (21 years or older). However, carrying anything in public beyond 1 ounce and up to 4 ounces could get you a fine of up to $25. Public possession beyond that is a misdemeanor, and over 1 lb. is a felony.
Cultivation: At home, you can grow up to four plants. Just make sure to attach a legible tag, keep it out of view of the public, and away from anyone under 21, or else you’ll incur a civil penalty. More than four plants is a misdemeanor after your first offense, unless you have more than 49 plants, in which case it’s a felony.
Sale/manufacture/trafficking: Anything over an ounce is a felony, with possible punishment of up to life in prison.
It’s legal to possess and use weed in Virginia (if you’re 21 and older), but selling marijuana flower, seeds, clones, or any other part of the plant remains illegal until January 1, 2024. Photo: Olena Ruban.
Get your bongs, blunts, and bowls ready—starting July 1, everyone 21 and over can legally possess and use marijuana recreationally in Virginia. Adults will be able to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to four marijuana plants at home, as long as they keep them out of public view and away from children. However, the new law is full of caveats, and may not be so easy to follow.
Here, Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based group fighting for equitable legalization, walks us through the dos and don’ts of Virginia marijuana use.
Can I buy marijuana legally?
Not yet. Until January 1, 2024, it will remain illegal to sell marijuana seeds, clones, flower, or any other part of the plant in Virginia, outside of the state’s medical marijuana program. And it is against federal law to bring home marijuana from other states where it is legally sold.
Adults may share up to an ounce of marijuana with each other, but not in exchange for money, goods, or services. They also cannot provide free “gifts” of weed with legal items, like the gifting market in Washington, D.C. The immediate effect of this law isn’t to create a legal marijuana market, but rather to decrease the amount of marijuana arrests by eliminating possession as a crime.
Where am I allowed to smoke?
Consumption of marijuana in public spaces, moving vehicles, and on school grounds will remain illegal. Those traveling with marijuana are urged to keep it in a sealed container inside their trunk or glove compartment. While police are no longer able to use the smell of marijuana as a reason to search a vehicle, “[they] are able to now say they see a green leafy substance in your car and are able to search it,” says Higgs Wise. “Don’t give them a reason to search your car.”
If you’re a renter, you might not be allowed to smoke in your apartment, either. “Please review your leases,” says Higgs Wise. “A lot of private landlords are able to say you cannot consume drugs, because they are outlawed at a federal level.”
Is my previous marijuana arrest gone?
Maybe. On July 1, Virginia will automatically seal all records of misdemeanor possession with intent to distribute marijuana, including arrests, charges, and convictions. (All records of misdemeanor simple possession were sealed when Virginia decriminalized marijuana last year.)
By 2025, the state plans to have all records of simple possession or misdemeanor possession with the intent to distribute sealed as well. People with other marijuana-related misdemeanors or (most) felonies will be able to petition for their records to be sealed.
What are the next steps for marijuana reform in Virginia?
In the near future, Marijuana Justice hopes to see many improvements made to legalization laws. The advocates are particularly worried about how new laws will impact youth under 21, public housing residents, and unhoused people, who could face a list of fines, misdemeanors, and other penalties for using marijuana.
“We’ve seen an uptick in youth enforcement as states have legalized…though there is no evidence there is an increase in youth consumption of marijuana because a state has legalized,” says Higgs Wise. “We would love to have a bill for state [college] campuses to remove any zero tolerance policies around marijuana,” which fuel the school-to-prison pipeline.
Additionally, since there currently is no legal way to purchase recreational weed, advocates are concerned about what law enforcement will consider an “open container” of marijuana in public places and during traffic stops. In places where weed is legal, a “closed container” is typically a sealed manufacturer’s container, which Virginians do not yet have access to.
“This is why our main demand to legislators is to repeal the criminal enforcement…and look into how to create more of a legal and health system around the plant,” says Higgs Wise. “There’s no way to equitably or fairly enforce any of these laws, when we have seen marijuana enforcement disproportionately impact Black people.”
“If we want to commit to not repeating our past harms, we need to not put money towards continued enforcement,” adds Higgs Wise, pointing to the extra funding given to police for traffic enforcement within the new laws.
And more must be done to repair the harm caused by the decades-long war on drugs, specifically within Black and brown communities, Higgs Wise emphasizes.
“What we have to decide next is where the millions of dollars in tax revenue that Virginia will earn go,” she adds. “Will Virginia be the first state to make direct payments to people that have arrests and charges [due] to marijuana?”
Marijuana legalization will go into effect three years earlier than initially planned after Governor Northam amended the General Assembly’s bill. Photo: Mark Warner Flickr
Virginia’s marijuana legalization law will go into effect on July 1, making the Old Dominion the 16th state in the nation and the first state in the South to legalize adult recreational cannabis use.
The state’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed an initial marijuana legalization bill in February, then sent it to Governor Ralph Northam for approval. Northam returned the bill with a series of amendments, and last week the legislature voted to approve those changes.
The gov’s amendments accelerated the legalization process significantly. The version of the bill that passed the General Assembly in February would have made adult recreational use legal starting in 2024, with the delay giving the state time to establish a new agency to oversee sales of marijuana products. Northam’s amendments make simple possession legal beginning this summer.
The vote on final bill was deadlocked 20-20 in the state Senate, with Democrat Chap Petersen of Fairfax joining all 19 Republicans in opposition to the legislation. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax stepped in to break the tie in favor of passage.
The bill does include a few contradictions. If possession is legal this summer but sales aren’t allowed until 2024, how are law-abiding stoners supposed to get their herb? One way is to pick up the fertilizer. It’ll be legal to grow up to four marijuana plants beginning July 1, and it’ll be legal to receive the drug as a gift from a grower.
You’re also not supposed to drive with unsealed containers of marijuana—but officially sealed containers don’t exist yet, as state-sanctioned distributors won’t be in action until 2024.
The final version of the bill includes some important criminal justice provisions aimed at redressing the state’s long history of racist implementation of drug laws. The law says that all misdemeanor marijuana possession charges will be automatically expunged, and those with marijuana felonies will be able to petition for expungement. The General Assembly delayed making a decision on what to do about those currently serving time for marijuana-related crimes.
The commonwealth stands to make a tremendous amount of money from taxes on marijuana sales, with early estimates suggesting $300 million over the first five years of legalization. The governor did not change the initially proposed disbursement plan for those funds. Forty percent will be devoted to preschool programs for at-risk kids, 30 percent will be placed in a new Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, 25 percent will go to substance abuse treatment programs, and 5 percent will be left for public health programs in general.
The General Assembly will continue to iron out details in the legalization process during its session next year.
In a statement after the bill’s passage, Northam said he was pleased that the state’s “framework for legalization focuses on public health, public safety, and equity.”
“Marijuana laws were explicitly designed to target communities of color,” he said, “and Black Virginians are disproportionately likely to be stopped, charged, and convicted. Today, Virginia took a critical step to right these wrongs and restore justice to those harmed by decades of over-criminalization.”
UVA’s historic basketball win was, not suprisingly, our most picked-up print issue of the year. Kyle Guy jumped for joy when the team won its first national championship by defeating Texas Tech 85-77, in an overtime thriller.
Photo: Jerry Holt
We looked back on the year and (with the help of Google Analytics) our most-read stories online. The takeaway? Our readers care about marijuana, Confederate statues, and food—with a side of basketball victory.
Here’s a rundown of our most-popular stories from 2019:
This piece, by longtime freelancer Shea Gibbs, was far and away our most popular online story of the year, even though the print version lost out on the cover to Virginia’s basketball victory (see above).
It charted our state’s halting steps toward marijuana legalization, along with the potential medical, legal, and economic benefits. Though Virginia has legalized CBD and THCA (elements of marijuana that are not psychoactive) and approved other low-THC products for medical use, it lags behind many other states in legalizing medical marijuana and de-criminalizing recreational use, let alone fully legalizing pot as nine states have now done.
As the story noted, a Republican-led state legislature ensured most bills taking steps toward legalization never made it out of committee, but with a blue State Senate and House of Delegates taking over in January, along with a Democratic governor, all that could change next year.
“If we elect a Democratic majority, I think you are looking at a clear, distinct possibility marijuana will be part of a new Virginia economy, along with clean energy,” Kathy Galvin told us back in April. Fingers crossed.
Needless to say, those McIntire-endowed statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson have been roiling the lives of Charlottesvillians for years, and that continued in 2019.
In March, then-C-VILLE news editor Lisa Provence wrote “The Plaintiffs,” a straightforward cover story about the 13 people and groups who had decided to sue the city of Charlottesville to prevent it from removing its Confederate monuments. One of those plaintiffs, Edward Dickinson Tayloe II, then sued Provence and this newspaper for writing about his family’s history as one of the largest slave-holding dynasties in Virginia. He also sued UVA associate professor Jalane Schmidt for observations she made in the story.
In what’s commonly known as “the Streisand effect,” the lawsuit brought renewed scrutiny to Tayloe, with in-depth stories in The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and other national outlets. In October, Tayloe’s defamation lawsuit was dismissed in Albemarle Circuit Court, which found the defamation claims had no legal basis.
Associate prof Jalane Schmidt and former C-VILLE news editor Lisa Provence outside the courthouse after the defamation lawsuit against them was dismissed.
Tayloe had better luck with his lawsuit against the city: In September, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore ruled that our 1920s-era Confederate statues are protected by a ‘50s-era state law forbidding the removal of war memorials. He issued a permanent injunction preventing the statues from being moved, nullifying City Council’s unanimous vote.
As with marijuana legalization, however, things could look different when the Dems take control of the Virginia legislature: Like David Toscano before her, Delegate-elect Sally Hudson has said she plans to introduce a bill to change the monuments law, and this time, it might actually get out of committee.
Several shops in town sell hemp flowers, which look and smell very much like plain old (still illegal) marijuana—and at least one resident found himself hassled by local cops who couldn’t tell the difference. While industrial hemp is legal in Virginia, as are CBD products, the status of hemp flowers seems to fall into a gray zone. In any event, they contain extremely low levels of THC, so while they may or may not have beneficial health effects, they definitely won’t get you high.
For the summer issue of our glossy quarterly Knife & Fork, we asked The Charlottesville 29 food blogger Simon Davidson to take a measure of the city’s new places to eat. What he found was an ethnic smorgasboard that included fast-casual Greek (Cava), Thai and “southeast Asian street food” (Chimm), Tibetan fare (Druknya House), and Spanish/Mexican-influenced fine cooking (Little Star). Quirky Peloton Station—a haven of inventive sandwiches, salads, and craft brews on tap—also made the list, as did the swanky Prime 109, which our readers voted Best Steakhouse in the annual Best of C-VILLE poll. “While our area’s restaurants scene has long punched above its weight, the latest additions remind us that even in the best food communities, there’s always room to grow,” Davidson wrote.
Earlier this year, one of our reporters was shocked to see a gray Dodge Challenger, the same type of car that was used to kill Heather Heyer and injure dozens of others on August 12, 2017, with a Charlottesville Police Department logo. The car also featured decals of the “thin blue line” flag, a flag that was carried by some Unite the Right attendees that day.
We weren’t the only ones to be disturbed by the department’s tone-deaf taste in vehicles—local community activist Rosia Parker had raised the issue at a City Council meeting, but received no response. In answer to C-VILLE’s inquiries, the department said the car had been designed and purchased well before August 2017. But just this month, after receiving a FOIA request for the purchase records, the city revealed that the Challenger had actually been purchased five months after the tragedy.
Asked to explain this discrepency, police spokesman Tyler Hawn called it “a misunderstanding.” While not apologizing, the city has removed the car from its fleet. “This is clearly a reminder for many of the Summer of Hate and the attack,” said City Manager Tarron Richardson, who made the decision with Chief Rashall Brackney. “We believe removing it from our fleet is in the best interests of the community.”
To say we were surprised by the popularity of this story would be unfair to Wilson Craig, who launched Virginia’s first canned-cocktail brand in a city seemingly saturated by craft beer, local wine, and fancy cocktails. The early success of Waterbird Spirits showed that the region’s thirst for alcoholic beverages extends to portable drinks infused with potato vodka–the brand debuted with four-packs of Moscow Mules and Vodka Soda & Limes in 12-ounce cans. Craig got an insider boost from a family friend, Delegate David Toscano, who introduced and ushered rapid passage of a statutory amendment that made it legal in Virginia to produce a “low-alcohol beverage cooler” using a distilled spirit. But it’s the entrepreneur’s hustle that has really made Waterbird take flight. Craig says he will soon expand distribution to other states, introduce three more types of canned drinks, and start selling Waterbird in bottles.
Many in Charlottesville were stunned and saddened by the sudden death of Nick Leichtentritt, a beloved figure in the local food community who had left a corporate job to open Milli Coffee Roasters in 2012 and, later, Sicily Rose. In May, we were pleased to report that Milli Joe would be reopening, under the direction of longtime customer John Borgquist and Leichtentritt’s younger sister, Sophia.
Hedge fund manager (and UVA alum) Jaffray Woodriff made headlines with his record-setting $120 million donation to the university, to establish a School of Data Science. But with great power (Woodriff is also reshaping the west end of the Downtown Mall with his Center for Developing Entrepreneurs, and gave $12.5 million to the university for a new squash center) comes great scrutiny, and many raised concerns about the focus of Woodriff’s contributions in a city dealing with an affordable housing crisis.
These concerns were later echoed by none other than Bloomberg News, but many local readers were outraged that we had reported on criticism of the donation. “We’re just a about ready to stop reading C-VILLE because of stories like this,” one Facebook commenter wrote.
Our annual list was a mix of old standbys (we’re looking at you, Coran Capshaw), new faces (developers Jeff Levien and Ivy Naté), and a lot of groups, from “Rich guys” to Charlottesville Twitter.
The Hate-Free Schools Coalition was recognized for its grassroots campaign to have Confederate symbols banned from Albemarle County’s public schools (it succeeded after more than a year of determined protest and a number of arrests). And the Counties, Cities and Towns Subcommittee of the Virginia General Assembly also made the list, revealing how “six state legislators you’ve probably never heard of” had the power to block legislation that would give Charlottesville local control over its own monuments.
Of Mayor Nikuyah Walker, we wrote: “While some wish she’d stop trash-talking the town in national media outlets (meanwhile refusing multiple interview requests from C-VILLE), Walker is keen to point out the ugly history and lingering inequities that exist beneath Charlottesville’s lovely façade.”
Paige Rice at a City Council meeting following the KKK rally in July 2017.
eze amos
‘Odd’ indictment
The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads.
“It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution,” says attorney Scott Goodman. “It seems like something that could have easily been resolved without a felony indictment.”
A former city employee who spoke only on the condition of anonymity says, “It seems kind of odd to me someone didn’t call her and say, you need to return the phone, rather than sneak around and charge her with a felony. Particularly with her husband working there. It’s very odd.”
Rice is married to Joe Rice, deputy director of communications for the city. Neither responded to C-VILLE’s phone calls.
Rice was a fixture at council meetings for eight years. Last July she was named chief of staff to manage two new employees at the disposal of councilors. The job came with a salary bump from almost $73,000 to $98,000. The larger council staff had been touted by then-mayor Mike Signer, but was criticized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who call for a guest audit of the position and its pay.
Attorney Dave Heilberg says embezzlement is a crime of taking property with which one has been entrusted, but Rice’s case “is not as clear cut” as that of an accountant who writes herself a check. What Rice was told about the equipment could be a factor in her defense, and he points out that “technology goes out of date really fast” when assessing its value.
A grand jury from both Albemarle County and Charlottesville—which is also unusual, says Heilberg—indicted Rice June 7. And court records show the date of the offense as October 5, Rice’s official last day.
Goodman says the indictment could have consequences that “could be ugly,” particularly if Rice has information about other people in the city in similar circumstances who didn’t get indicted.
A city release announcing Rice’s resignation said, “The City Council appreciates the service of Ms. Rice over the last eight years and wishes her the best as she moves on to the next exciting phase in her professional life.”
Her next court appearance is August 19.
Quote of the week
“The House [of Delegates] has no prerogative to select its own members.”—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds a lower court ruling that Virginia’s legislative districts were racially gerrymandered
In brief
B’day non grata
At its June 17 meeting, City Council took steps to remove the birthday of local icon Thomas Jefferson, April 13, as a paid city holiday and to replace it with Liberation and Freedom Day, March 3, which commemorates the arrival of Union forces and the emancipation of the area’s 14,0000 enslaved people. Albemarle will discuss ditching Jefferson’s birthday at its June 19 meeting.
Are luxury condos in the Dewberry’s future? Skyclad Aerial
Dewberry condos?
Not much activity has been seen on the ground at the site of the alleged Dewberry Hotel, now celebrating its 10th anniversary as a wraith towering over the Downtown Mall. But the Progress reports some movement on the Dewberry Group website, and renderings of the hotel have migrated from its hospitality to its living section, with a new name: the Laramore.
Deadbeat guv pays up
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice finally paid the$311,000 in back taxes his company owed to Albemarle County, plus the current tax bill, reports the DP’s Allison Wrabel. The county had started the process to sell 52 of Justice’s 55 parcels because of the large arrearage.
AG okays THC
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring spoke out in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana in an op-ed published in both the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot on Sunday. The General Assembly has yet to pass any measures on the issue, but decriminalization has been an issue generally shot down by Republicans in past sessions.
Rural broadband access
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative’s subsidiary, doing business as Firefly Fiber Broadband, will receive $28.6 million of FCC funds to provide 1 gigabit internet speeds for over 11,000 homes and businesses in central Virginia over the next 10 years.
Election turnout: Not great
Off-year elections traditionally have lower turnout, and this year’s June 11 primary was no exception. With no presidential or gubernatorial candidates at the top of the ballot, many voters chose to sit out the primary, despite several local General Assembly races.
The 57th District, which includes Charlottesville and the Albemarle urban ring, had the highest turnout—15.7 percent—in state General Assembly elections, according to Virginia Public Access Project.
The 17th Senate District, which had both a Democratic and Republican primary, brought in a much lower 5 percent of the electorate in each race.
Total Charlottesville turnout (including City Council primaries) was 19 percent, compared to 27 percent in 2017.
Total Albemarle County turnout (including races for sheriff and Rivanna supervisor) was 10 percent.
In 2017, county turnout was 19 percent for the Democratic primary for governor and .05 percent for the Republican primary.
Science can’t say for sure if marijuana saved Josh Hunt’s life. But he’s certain of it.
Hunt, who co-owns and operates local restaurants Beer Run and Kardinal Hall, was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in October 2014. He’d had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. An MRI revealed a growth on his right frontal lobe. Doctors scheduled surgery immediately and removed as much of the tumor as they could.
A week later, a biopsy brought the bad news. Many people diagnosed with malignant stage 4 GBMs live for another year, year and a half.
In the wake of his diagnosis, Hunt was devastated. He lived for weeks in a sort of “black and white” world, he says. Then he read Anticancer: A New Way of Life, and it inspired him to fight. He decided he would try anything he could to beat back the cancer in his brain. He would bring color back to his life.
Chemotherapy and radiation were the prescribed courses, but Hunt had also heard of a non-mainstream cancer-fighting drug —cannabis.
Medical marijuana has been shown to be effective in treating a number of conditions, and doctors have recommended it for everything from controlling symptoms of epilepsy and multiple sclerosis to dealing with chronic pain, nausea, and loss of appetite, to helping with mental health issues like anxiety and PTSD. Whether it can also fight cancer is controversial, but a friend working in medical marijuana in Colorado told Hunt patients were seeing great results using tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, to shrink tumors.
The American Cancer Society reports that some animal and cell studies have shown THC and other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD), can slow the growth of or kill certain types of cancer cells. But results from the few clinical trials that have been published are inconclusive, and more research is needed.
Regardless, Hunt wanted to give THC a try. He went to his doctor. Would marijuana interfere with other therapies? Was it total bunk? It would not interfere, the doctor said. And it was worth a try.
At the time, all forms of medical marijuana were illegal in Virginia, so Hunt had to travel out of state. He took a concentrated form of THC and CBD weed commonly known as Rick Simpson oil, over several months. It was a heady trip, and he often felt like giving it up. But his follow-up biopsies kept him going. Where most GBM patients at best see their tumors remain the same or at worst triple in size every few months, Hunt’s began to shrink.
“I’m not new agey at all, but I had this experience,” he says. “I had this moment where I remember distinctly feeling this energy coursing through me, and it was like embracing me in a cosmic love, and I knew it was going to heal me.”
Local restaurant owner Josh Hunt had to travel out of state in order to get the concentrated form of CBD and THC oil he used to help treat his stage 4 glioblastoma, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience found that “accumulating evidence indicates that cannabinoids have potent anti-tumor functions and might be used successfully in the treatment of GBM.” Photo: Eze Amos
Virginia’s changed since Hunt traveled for his own cannabis treatment in late 2014. CBD and THCA, another non-psychoactive cannabinoid, are now legal prescription drugs, and five dispensaries around the state have been licensed to start selling the low-strength medical marijuana products later this year. Although state law prevents the distribution of full-strength cannabis (the oil Hunt used would still not be available here, for example), Virginia is the 46th state that’s moved toward making marijuana legal for medicinal purposes.
Nine states have also legalized marijuana for recreational use. And that’s opened up opportunities, not only for patients looking to improve their lives, but also for countless economic benefits and for reduced penalties for cannabis users, specifically the low-income communities hurt worst by war on drugs-era legislation.
“We have seen so many people’s lives ravaged by the war on drugs. We know that has been a coordinated effort to target minority communities,” says Sally Hudson, a UVA labor economist who’s running for the House of Delegates seat to be vacated by David Toscano later this year. “There are definitely opportunities for entrepreneurs in agriculture. But for me, that is secondary. It starts with righting the injustice.”
Cannabis in the commonwealth
The Virginia Legislature has consistently blocked marijuana decriminalization and legalization bills. Despite the legal status of CBD and THCA products for medical use, the drug is still categorized as fully illegal in the state. In a lawmaking body led by Republicans, most bills suggesting decriminalization or legalization never make it out of committee.
In January, the Virginia Senate defeated SB 997, which would have decriminalized simple possession (possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use). The House defeated a companion bill, HB 2079, around the same time.
The string of losses could end if the Virginia House flips Democratic in November, advocates believe. “If we elect a Democratic majority, I think you are looking at a clear, distinct possibility marijuana will be part of a new Virginia economy, along with clean energy,” said Kathy Galvin, a Charlottesville city councilor who’s running against Hudson for Toscano’s House seat.
According to Virginia NORML director Jenn Michelle Pedini, Virginia has been taking steps toward approving medical cannabis legislation since 2015. And in 2018, a program that allowed low-THC products for the treatment of intractable epilepsy was expanded to account for any condition recommended by a physician. The program is regulated by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.
New bills in front of the legislature would allow the dispensaries, to be located in Staunton, Manassas, Bristol, Richmond, and Portsmouth, to distribute full therapeutic-strength medical cannabis, which contains higher levels of THC than what’s currently allowed in Virginia, and might be more effective at combating certain ailments. Senator Siobhan Dunnavant, a Republican and physician, has led the way on the bills, as she has with most medical marijuana legislation in the state.
Pedini says no date has been set for opening Virginia’s five state dispensaries, but conversations with Board of Pharmacy members have led her to believe September is realistic. The facilities will need time to organize and scale up to serve customers, she says, and the facility in Portsmouth, known as Columbia Care, is likely to be the first fully operational dispensary in the commonwealth.
The next step, according to Pedini, would be to move regulation of the industry away from the Board of Pharmacy to an agency specifically created for medical marijuana. Like so many other cannabis-related crossroads, the speed of such a move will depend largely on how the November election goes.
Pedini says moving away from the current licensing model to a “tiered model,” in which marijuana retail and production are licensed separately, would allow the economic opportunities of cannabis to blossom, bringing new growers and dispensers into the fold rather than bulking up the original five.
The step after that? Decriminalization and full legal status for marijuana, a measure that Gallup polls show is now favored by 66 percent of Americans, a record high approval rating and the third year in a row its favorability has increased. (In Gallup’s first pot poll, in 1969, only 12 percent of Americans said the drug should be legalized.)
Legalized: Marijuana is legal to use, subject to state laws regarding age, place, and amount. Medical: Marijuana is legal for the treatment of medical conditions. (Virginia is not included in states with medical marijuana, because only CBD and THCA oils are legal,) Decriminalized: Marijuana is still considered illegal, but users caught with small amounts for personal use will not be prosecuted.
Breaking down the law
With the recent spate of states approving marijuana for medical and recreational use—Oklahoma, Michigan, Missouri, Utah—many advocates believe legalization in areas like Virginia is a fait accompli. It simply comes down to how soon it happens.
And the most critical benefit of legalization, they say, is what it will prevent: the arrest and incarceration of individuals for simple marijuana possession and use.
Steven Hawkins, executive director of D.C.’s Marijuana Policy Project, says for the past 40 years, simple drug possession has been “at the very epicenter of the war on drugs,” a war that disproportionately affects black Americans. According to 2013 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, black people are at least 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for a drug offense than white people, despite using illicit drugs at a similar rate.
Hawkins believes thinking about marijuana lawmaking as a criminal justice issue brings blue and red legislators together—most folks agree small-time marijuana busts are a poor use of police time and money, and it’s not an issue worth scarring citizens’ records. Galvin is one of those who agrees.
“The Charlottesville Police Department doesn’t arrest on the basis of marijuana—they can but they don’t,” she says. “But it has been on the base of discretion, and it’s better to have clear laws.”
Now some reliably red, Southern states are moving toward medical marijuana—South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia itself. And once one state goes, contiguous states tend to follow, Hawkins says.
Nationally, lawmakers are opening up to cannabis, as well. While the drug is still on the federal controlled substances list, last year’s Hemp Farming Act, which legalizes low-THC industrial hemp nationwide, should continue to open dope doors.
“There are no national barriers any longer, so CBD is helping sort of plow the way,” Hawkins says.
Building the bankroll
Amy Dannemiller was working a corporate job in Colorado when marijuana started making inroads in mainstream circles. It was 2013, and her employer spotted her inhaling cannabis through a vape pen on CNBC’s “Marijuana in America” documentary. She was fired.
Dannemiller, who had begun hosting cannabis-friendly events around Denver under the pseudonym Jane West, jumped headlong into promoting the “legal lifestyle.” She now operates an eponymous company specializing in CBD oils, smoking accessories, and mini joints.
Jane West, who’s been called “The Martha Stewart of cannabis,” operates an eponymous company specializing in CBD oils, smoking accessories, and mini joints. publicity photo
Jane West CBD oils ship around the world. The company’s five- and 10-packs of marijuana cigarettes, branded for either “day” or “night” use, are available for purchase in a half dozen states, including the District of Columbia. In 2018, West raised almost $200,000 in equity funding from investors. Her business, she says, is growing like a weed, and she believes that’s good for both the economy and the public as a whole.
Pedini agrees. “The most important conversation around the legalization of marijuana is it provides states the ability to take it off the street corner and put it behind an age-verified counter, safely regulated and labeled for adult consumers,” she says.
Eliminating the illicit market for marijuana would enhance public safety and put cash in the public coffers. “We don’t have to guess what would happen,” she adds. “We can look at a multitude of other states and see for ourselves that regulation does reduce youth access.” (Not everyone agrees with Pedini’s conclusion, and with most marijuana legalization laws still in their infancy, the data is inconclusive.)
Will a weed-friendly Virginia yield the next marijuana magnate in the mold of West? Hard to say. As Pedini suggests, business opportunities are dependent on the regulatory structure put in place. The economic boon of growth and dispensation could go straight to deep-pocketed organizations with multi-state footprints. Or it might find its way to smaller investors and minority-owned businesses, if they’re guaranteed a spot in the circle.
Whoever wins the right to peddle the pot, might Charlottesville one day have marijuana dispensaries on every other corner? Consider Michigan, which legalized recreational cannabis in November 2018. Retailers around the state aren’t expected to open until 2020, as lawmakers and regulators work out the particulars. And a number of municipalities and counties, including notable holdouts along state borders, have put regulations in place to keep dispensaries outside their boundaries. College town Ann Arbor, which is larger than Charlottesville, is not among those: Twelve dispensaries are currently planned for the home of the University of Michigan.
“At the end of the day, marijuana legality is a local issue,” West says. “Colorado and Oklahoma are similar, big physical states with not a lot of people. They’ve been able to reach a compromise and have more accessible markets.”
In the absence of a license to grow, other business opportunities exist for the open-minded. West uses a licensing model to put her puffable products in pipes. She visits growers in Colorado, samples their merchandise, selects her favorite marijuana strains, and stamps her brand on the packaging before selling to retailers. Not only does the arrangement allow her to skirt strict growing standards, it gives her the ability to write off 100 percent of her business expenses, a luxury currently denied to agricultural cannabis companies.
Reading the tea
Pedini says NORML looks at Virginia’s coming election like this: Nothing is going to change. That’s not to say it won’t. But that’s the safest way for her group to go about its marijuana advocacy efforts.
“We will start there—that the temperature of the legislature will be the same,” Pedini says. “My suspicion is it will likely be two years before there is any major expansion of the medical marijuana program.”
In addition to the regulatory climate, she says, the five licensed processors will want to keep competition out of the game while they recoup their startup investments. And that may take time in an “initially volatile market.”
After a grace period, though, cities like Charlottesville could find themselves with dispensaries. Five facilities won’t be able to satisfy medical cannabis demand for long, Pedini says.
And Hawkins advises not to sleep on lawmakers continuing to shift their views in the near future. They’ve already come so far, he says, with legislators in states like Minnesota and Illinois moving from adamantly opposed to marijuana just two years ago to “all-in” in the past year.
“I think on medical, with time and effort, I don’t think there is a state that won’t ultimately go in our direction,” Hawkins says. “There is too much proof anecdotally, and the science shows more and more what the medical benefits are.”
For medical marijuana devotees like Hunt, the anecdotes are enough. Even if the cannabis oil treatment he used wasn’t responsible for shrinking the tumor in his brain, it was an effort he would make again without question. It was about agency, he says, taking his recovery into his own hands, making himself feel good about the fight. Bringing color back to his life.
“I didn’t want to die,” Hunt says.
Steven Hawkins, Jenn Michelle Pedini, Jane West, and others will discuss these issues and more at a Tom Tom Festival panel, The Future of Cannabis, on Wednesday, April 10, at The Paramount Theater.
Your guide to legal weed
Can’t tell your CBD from your THCA? Here’s what all those letters mean:
CBD (cannabidiol) is one of roughly 100 different cannabinoids found in marijuana (aka cannabis). It has therapeutic benefits, but it won’t get you high.
THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) is another cannabinoid with therapeutic potential, which is also non-intoxicating. It’s only found in raw and live cannabis.
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the cannabinoid that’s responsible for marijuana’s psychoactive effect. It’s what makes you high. When marijuana is dried, THCA slowly turns into THC.
And here’s what’s allowed in Virginia:
Non-intoxicating CBD and THCA oils, for medical conditions
Thanks to a 2018 state law, doctors can recommend CBD or THCA cannabis oil for any condition. The oils must contain at least 15 percent CBD or THCA, and no more than 5 percent THC (which means they’re non-intoxicating). These oils can only be produced and sold by specially licensed businesses called “pharmaceutical processors”—currently, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy has approved five processors in the state (the closest one to Charlottesville is in Staunton).
Hemp flowers
Local shops like Higher Education on West Main and Carrytown Tobacco on the Downtown Mall sell hemp flowers. Hemp is a strain of cannabis that doesn’t make you high (because it has a THC content of 0.3 percent or less.) Hemp flowers contain CBD and other potentially therapeutic compounds. But because they look and smell just like the illegal form of cannabis, possessing them may get you hassled by the cops (see our story on p. 15).
CBD-enhanced products
You can get CBD-enhanced oils, creams, gummies, and teas at natural foods stores like Rebecca’s. Again, because CBD is not psychoactive, all of these products are legal and none of them are intoxicating (though they may help with pain, stress, anxiety, and sleep issues).
