Skooma’s David Treccariche says he’s happy that large corporations won’t get the jump on selling legal weed in Virginia this year. Photo: Eze Amos
Virginia’s Republican-controlled House has killed a bill that would have allowed marijuana sales to begin ahead of schedule. The Democrat-controlled Senate passed the bill last month, but some advocates criticized elements of the legislation.
Virginia legalized marijuana in 2021, but the laws surrounding the drug are hazy. While everyone 21 and over can legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to four plants at home, it will not be legal to sell it until January 1, 2024. And it is against the law to bring marijuana home from other states where it is legally sold.
To speed up the legalization timeline, the state Senate passed a bill that would allow licensed medical dispensaries, as well as 10 industrial hemp processors, to begin selling recreational weed on September 15—but would prohibit other retailers from selling the drug until 2024. Democrats argued that the early sales would help curb the black market and fund loans for future social-equity retailers. However, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates voted down the controversial bill in a subcommittee this week, claiming it needed more time to study the issue and get the law right.
Some advocacy groups had rallied against the Senate bill, accusing lawmakers of giving corporations an unfair advantage and hurting efforts toward social equity.
“This is legislating a monopoly that will keep out small businesses and keep enforcement high for marginalized communities,” says Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice.
The Senate bill would have required large medical marijuana companies to “incubate” at least five qualified social equity applicants for six months, but such programs have been unsuccessful in other states, argues Higgs Wise. For example, none of the marijuana companies licensed by Illinois’ social equity program have opened since the state legalized the drug in 2019.
Limited early sales could also fuel—not weaken—the black market, argues Higgs Wise. In the five years since California has legalized recreational weed, the majority of sales still occur underground.
“[Data shows] that the informal market will actually increase when we create a limited, inaccessible market…And will only provide law enforcement with more validation to target Black and brown communities,” she explains.
David Treccariche, owner of downtown CBD dispensary Skooma, is relieved that large corporations will not get a head start on selling legal weed this year.
“I’m glad we didn’t start off by allowing these private equity, out-of-state players to get involved. Virginia farmers, local businesses, and hopefully those who have been incarcerated against this should get first rights, not private corporations,” he says. “Of course we want [sales] tomorrow, but we’ve got to be realistic.”
However, some marijuana activists supported the bill because it provided a way for consumers to purchase legal and safe marijuana earlier than 2024.
“We’re pleased that there is bipartisan support for expediting retail access,” says JM Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML. “As passed in the Senate, [the bill] largely addressed our concerns.”
Republicans do not plan to discuss the legalization timeline again until next year. Activists remain concerned about the continued criminalization of marijuana.
Higgs Wise says anyone in prison for marijuana should automatically be resentenced, which was not part of the Senate bill. “If you are in prison for marijuana only, then you get an automatic hearing in your locality where you were sentenced. But [the bill didn’t guarantee] an automatic release or resentence, which we think is part of injustice…We have to actually get people out and get people home.”
Gordon Sutton has expanded his locally owned fuel business into solar. Photo: Eze Amos
Eye of the Tiger
When attorney David Sutton purchased a small Charlottesville oil supplier on the verge of going out of business in 1982, the company had just two trucks to its name—and one had dry-rotted tires. But over the past four decades, Tiger Fuel Company has grown to become one of the largest petroleum distributors in the state. In addition to selling fuel to businesses and homeowners in Virginia and neighboring states, the company runs nearly a dozen gas stations, convenience stores, and car washes across central Virginia.
Last year, the family-owned business made a surprising pivot: It acquired Charlottesville-based solar company Altenergy.
“I’d been wanting to do solar at some of our facilities for a really long time, and had some good friends in the industry who were advising me on that,” says Tiger Fuel President Gordon Sutton. “For years and years, they [said] you could do it just for the feel-good reasons, but it doesn’t make a ton of financial sense. But about three or four years ago, they let me know that had absolutely changed.”
In 2018, Tiger Fuel hired Altenergy to install solar panels at its Preston Avenue and Ruckersville stores. Because the two companies had worked well together, Sutton decided to pursue a partnership, creating the petroleum distributor’s newest branch, Tiger Solar.
Tiger Fuel is now working to bring solar power to the rest of its convenience stores and bulk plants, and will use it for all future real estate projects. It’s also installed electric vehicle charging stations at its Mill Creek store, and plans to add them to more locations.
By transitioning to solar power, the company ultimately aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2025.
“It’s no question that the fossil fuel landscape is changing,” says Sutton. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”—Brielle Entzminger
‘What’s going on in there?’
Strolling along the Downtown Mall these days will lead you past the quaint restaurants and boutiques that have long been associated with the pedestrian drag. But in some corners, that small business entrepreneurial spirit has taken on a more cutting-edge sheen. Icarus sells custom-made knee braces from its sleek office space near the corner of First and East Main streets. Closer to the mall’s east end Skooma opened last year, promising a “boutique” dispensary experience as full marijuana legalization approaches. Its Apple Store-esque decor strikes an entirely different note than the head shops of yore.
Dave Johnson, founder of Icarus, holds one of the company’s knee braces outside his downtown office. Photo: Eze Amos
Meanwhile, though plenty of traditional office space still occupies the mall’s nooks and crannies, multiple companies have set up trendy co-working spaces, where individuals or small groups can purchase more flexible access to office space. In addition to hosting larger tenants, the CODE Building houses the Codebase co-working space, which could support as many as 200 workers. Vault Virginia, also downtown, rents conference rooms, suites, and a la carte access to individuals and companies alike. And Common House, on West Market Street, offers membership-based entry to its coffee-shop-vibe multipurpose rooms. The times they are a-changin’.—Ben Hitchcock
If you build it…
Charlottesville’s innovators have had an effect on the city’s skyline in recent years. As the area becomes more and more of a hub for entrepreneurship and the tech industry, all those new employees need workspace, and that’s led to major new developments geared toward office space.
WillowTree has been in to its facility in the old Woolen Mills warehouse since last year. The Charlottesville-based software development firm has worked on digital products for big companies like HBO and McDonald’s, and also put together UVA’s COVIDwise app last year. The corp is very much in the process of pitching Charlottesville as a destination for entrepreneurship: “The future of tech innovation? It’s not where you think,” reads WillowTree’s website, above a picture of its new Woolen Mills campus. Checkmate, Palo Alto.
Closer to downtown, Apex Clean Energy has recently moved in to new digs, too. Apex is a renewable energy company, which organizes and operates solar and wind farms across the country. It has projects close to home, as well: last year, then-Governor Ralph Northam announced that the state would buy the output from Virginia’s first onshore wind turbine farm, operated by Apex and located in Botetourt County. The company’s shiny eight-story Garrett Street office building is made of sustainably harvested massed timber, a construction method that limits carbon emissions. Apex says it’s the tallest timber building on the East Coast.
Then, of course, there’s the CODE Building, which now looms at the Downtown Mall’s west end. The state-of-the-art tech tower opened late last year. The building’s upper floors will be rented to large companies—Jaffray Woodriff’s Quantitative Investment Management has already claimed one, and local wealth management firm Investure has moved in to another. In total, the building could bring as many as 600 workers to the mall.—Ben Hitchcock
Mission driven
Charity Malia Dinko has always had a passion for helping people. After immigrating to the United States from Ghana in 2010, she started sending money back to her hometown village of Worikambo as soon as she landed her first jobs at Walmart and McDonald’s. Making minimum wage, Dinko began to feel like she was not making much of a difference, but soon had a shift in perspective.
Charity Malia Dinko has created opportunities for women in Ghana through her shea butter business. Photo: John Robinson
“One day I was driving to work, and at the stoplight there was a homeless man begging for money. I only had 25 cents in my car…but God just spoke to me and told me you should give that money to him because that money could add up,” says Dinko. “It got me thinking…whatever it is I can save up and send to my mom, it will help something. It’s better than nothing.”
After earning her associate’s degree, Dinko transferred to the University of Virginia in 2016. She created a micro-loans program to help people in Ghana start their own businesses, but faced challenges keeping it running. While taking classes for her minor in social entrepreneurship, Dinko realized she could start her own business, selling what millions of exploited Ghanian women were already making: shea butter. In 2018, Dinko officially launched Northshea, which pays women in Worikambo a living wage to produce shea butter. Since then, the company has lifted many out of poverty, as well as built a library in the village and sent school supplies to children there.
“The northern part of Ghana is one of the poorest areas…Many [women] don’t have jobs at all, and they’re migrating to the south and [most] end up being abused,” says Dinko. “What we’re doing here is allowing the people to stay home by creating jobs right there.”
In addition to selling raw shea butter from her facility in Ghana, Dinko uses the raw butter to make a variety of whipped body butters with essential oils. Northshea’s products are currently sold at Darling, Rebecca’s Natural Foods, and The Elderberry, as well as on the company’s website.
As her company grows, Dinko plans to improve the schools and health care in Worikambo. And soon, she hopes to get her shea butter on shelves in big-name stores, like Target—the bigger the business gets, the more she’ll be able to give back.—Brielle Entzminger
David Treccariche says his new CBD dispensary, Skooma, could "set the standard" for dispensaries in town. Photo: Eze Amos.
High roller: Boutique dispensary opens downtown
The future of pot has arrived in Charlottesville. And it looks like an Apple store.
Skooma, the town’s newest CBD dispensary, opened on the Downtown Mall earlier this month. For the moment, the slick operation is offering the weed-adjacent products that are currently widely available in Virginia—edibles and plants that offer the muscle-relaxing benefits of CBD but lack THC, the ingredient in regular marijuana with hallucinogenic effects.
Skooma’s style, however, immediately sets it apart from some of the city’s other CBD stores. The shop is pristine and spacious, with hemp flowers perched atop modern stands and employees floating around in floor-length white lab coats.
Owner David Treccariche says the aesthetic is intentional. Skooma (named after a drug from the Elder Scrolls video game series) is a self-described “boutique” cannabis shop, differentiating it from other head and smoke shops, which Trecaricche says usually have “annoying signs on the door…bright flashing lights [and] a different environment.”
Before entering the marijuana business, Trecaricche founded a car dealership and worked as an operations manager for Tiger Fuel Company. After recognizing marijuana’s increased presence in mainstream American life, he decided “to jump feet first” into the market for legal weed. He plans to transition to selling THC-based products once he’s legally allowed to do so, and says he’ll eventually open a second location, using demographic information from customers to decide where it should be located.
Treccariche says he hopes his shop will “set the standard” for dispensaries in the Charlottesville area as the legal buying and selling of marijuana approaches in 2024. For now, one of Skooma’s main points of emphasis is to match customers’ different preferences and comfort levels and “educate” wherever it can.
“Some people are just strictly gummies, and that’s great, we love that,” he says. “And some people like to be old school and smoke, and that’s great too.” With full legalization in sight, entrepreneurs like Treccariche have set their sights high.—Joseph Riley
City approves eviction right-to-counsel program
During its Monday night meeting, Charlottesville City Council dedicated $300,000 of American Rescue Plan funds to establish a right-to-counsel pilot program for eviction hearings. Charlottesville is the first city in the south to guarantee representation for those facing eviction. An additional $400,000 was allocated towards emergency rent assistance. Headed by the Legal Aid Justice Center, the new program will include community outreach and education, as well as rent relief navigation and support. Once the Centers for Disease Control’s ban on evictions ends on July 31, local housing activists, who have been advocating for the program since spring, say the legal representation will help keep struggling tenants in their homes.
“We’ve had several drivers get sick. We’ve been here with the major snowstorms. We were there on August 11 and 12…The need for a transit union is one that is long overdue for us.”
—CAT bus driver Matthew Ray, advocating for a collective bargaining ordinance for city employees during Monday’s City Council meeting
In brief
Guns down in Albemarle
Tighter gun control could soon be coming to Albemarle County. On Wednesday night, the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing and then vote on an ordinance outlawing guns in buildings, parks, and community centers owned (or used) by the county. Some community members have spoken out against the proposal, claiming it will not prevent gun violence and will negatively impact law-abiding gun owners. Localities across the state have enacted similar gun bans—Charlottesville enacted a very similar policy last year.
Sold!
Fashion Square Mall. Photo: Jack Looney.
The practically-empty Fashion Square Mall was up for auction last week. During a foreclosure auction outside the Albemarle County Circuit Courthouse on Friday, the mall’s mortgage lender, an LLC called Charlottesville JP 2014-C21 LLC, bid back and forth with local real estate mogul Richard Hewitt for about 20 minutes, before repurchasing the property for $20.2 million, reports the Daily Progress. The mall’s owner, Washington Prime Group Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. The long-term future of the mall remains to be seen.
Game of Throneburgs
A new politician has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2022 5th Congressional District race. Josh Throneburg, a minister and small business owner, has announced that he’s running as a Democrat for the seat currently held by Bob Good. Throneburg hopes to create green jobs in rural areas, expand access to healthcare, and work to address systemic racism. He says he was inspired to run by his daughters and “the uncertain future they are inheriting.”
Updated 7/26: An earlier version misspelled Josh Throneburg’s name.
