Virginia Lawmakers Advance Marijuana Resentencing Bills As Push To Legalize Commercial Sales Also Nears Finish Line

Virginia House and Senate lawmakers have advanced a pair of companion bills, with amendments, that would provide a pathway to resentencing for people with prior marijuana convictions.

Members of the Senate and House Courts of Justice Committees on Monday approved substitute versions of the opposite chambers’ reform legislation, making certain revisions that set the stage for bicameral negotiations as the measures move forward in the legislative process.

Overall, the legislation as introduced in both chambers would create a process by which people who are incarcerated or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana could receive an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.

The Senate panel approved HB 26 from Del. Rozia Henson (D) in a 9-6 vote, with revisions largely conforming it to the chamber’s own bill, SB 62, that’s being sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D) that passed on the floor last month before moving to the House.

Senators have now referred the House measure to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee for further consideration.

There are some differences between the chambers’ measures. The House-passed legislation includes juveniles among those who would be eligible for relief for marijuana-related convictions, clarifies that judges would only be considering resentencing for cannabis offenses and specifies that people with probation violations for marijuana would be included in the reform.

Both bills as introduced apply to people whose convictions or adjudications are for conduct that occurred prior to July 1, 2021, when a state law legalizing personal possession and home cultivation of marijuana went into effect.

With respect to the Senate bill, which cleared the House committee in substitute form in a 15-7 vote on Monday, it would exclude more categories of people who could qualify for resentencing, while adding a longer list of violent crimes that would render people with cannabis convictions ineligible for relief.

In the background of these latest developments, separate Virginia bills to legalize recreational marijuana sales have continued to advance toward enactment into law. Lawmakers in both the House of Delegates and Senate last week amended and advanced the opposite chambers’ proposals on the issue.

Virginia lawmakers took action on multiple marijuana bills on a key deadline last month—advancing the proposals to legalize cannabis sales, provide a pathway to resentencing for prior marijuana convictions, as well as other legislation to allow medical cannabis access in hospitals for seriously ill patients.

Despite the outstanding differences, both chambers’ commercial sales bills have largely aligned with recommendations released in December by the legislature’s Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.

Meanwhile, certain GOP members have found themselves ideologically aligned with their Democratic colleagues throughout this legislative process, breaking with the majority of their caucus in support of creating a regulated marketplace for adults to purchase cannabis.

Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021, Virginia lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market—only to have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by the legislature.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), by contrast, supports legalizing adult-use marijuana sales.

Separately last month, the Virginia House passed a bill to allow patients to use medical marijuana in hospitals. It would require healthcare facilities to establish policies “to address circumstances under which an eligible patient would be permitted to use medical cannabis.”

The Senate passed differing legislation concerning the use of medical cannabis in health care facilities last month.

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Meanwhile, the Virginia House this month approved a bill to protect the rights of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law.

Under the proposal from Del. Nadarius Clark (D), possession of use of cannabis by a parent or guardian on its own “shall not serve as a basis to deem a child abused or neglected unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption causes or creates a risk of physical or mental injury to the child.”

“A person’s legal possession or consumption of substances authorized under [the state’s marijuana law] alone shall not serve as a basis to restrict custody or visitation unless other facts establish that such possession or consumption is not in the best interest of the child,” the text of the bill, HB 942, states.

Separately, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry recently published a new outlining workplace protections for cannabis consumers.