Virginia lawmakers have sent a marijuana resentencing bill to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, opening a path for people still incarcerated or under supervision for old cannabis convictions to get back in court.
Virginia lawmakers have sent a marijuana resentencing bill to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, moving one of the state’s most overdue cannabis reforms a step closer to reality. The measure, SB 62, with HB 26 as its House companion, would create an automatic hearing process for certain people still incarcerated or under community supervision for marijuana-related offenses committed before July 1, 2021, the date Virginia’s personal-possession and home-grow law took effect.
The key vote came on March 6, 2026, when the Virginia Senate voted 21-19 to approve House changes and send the bill to the governor’s desk. That means this is no longer just another criminal justice proposal floating around Richmond. It has cleared the legislature. It is now a live test of whether Virginia is willing to do more than legalize marijuana on paper while leaving people trapped in the wreckage of the old system.
Last Prisoner Project, which has pushed for this kind of relief in Virginia for years, celebrated the bill’s passage on Monday, calling it a chance to correct punishments that no longer reflect the law or the moment. The group said the legislation guarantees automatic hearings for eligible marijuana cases and extends potential relief to people who are still incarcerated, under supervision or adjudicated as juveniles. Those are not small tweaks. That is the difference between symbolic reform and something that can actually change lives.
The politics here matter too. Similar legislation made it through last year, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin. This time, the bill lands on the desk of Gov. Abigail Spanberger, and Virginia’s rules mean it can become law even if she takes no action. The governor’s veto and amendment deadline is April 13.
There is also a bigger irony hanging over all of this. Virginia legalized personal possession and home cultivation years ago, and lawmakers are still working through separate legislation to launch adult-use sales. But for some people, the legal era still has not arrived. The state moved on. Their sentences did not.
That is what makes this bill worth watching. Not because it fixes everything. It does not. But because it starts to address one of the ugliest habits in American cannabis policy: declaring victory after legalization while thousands of people continue living with penalties from the version of the law that came before.
If Spanberger signs the bill, or lets it become law, Virginia will finally begin doing something legalization alone never guaranteed: going back for the people it left behind.
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