Marijuana Moment: Virginia Candidates For Governor Have Contrasting Marijuana Stances As Early Voting Begins

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Virginia voters have the chance to decide on whether their next governor will be someone who supports or opposes legalizing recreational marijuana sales in the commonwealth—with the two major party nominees holding diametrically opposed views on the future of cannabis policy.

Early in-person voting begins on Friday in an election that could prove determinative in whether adult consumers will be able to purchase marijuana from legal and regulated stores.

While the legislature has twice passed bills to create a regulated commercial cannabis market after the state legalized possession, use and personal home cultivation by adults in 2022, current Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed both proposals.

The GOP nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), has staunchly opposed allowing Virginia to create a commercial adult-use cannabis market, going so far as to say that marijuana is a gateway drug and suggesting that legalization is “decimating communities.”

Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is on the other side of the spectrum, expressing her interest, if elected, in working with the legislature to develop a system of regulated sales consistent with what the majority of voters support.

“As Virginia takes steps toward creating a legalized retail market for cannabis,” the congresswoman told Marijuana Moment that she believes “the Commonwealth needs a clear strategy to set up a market that is safe for consumers, transparent for businesses, and fair to entrepreneurs.”

She added that it’s her stance that “revenue from commercial cannabis products must return to Virginia communities and be reinvested for purposes like strengthening our public schools.”

If elected, Spanberger said she will “work with leaders in the General Assembly to find a path forward that both prioritizes public safety and grows Virginia’s economy.”

Last year, the candidate also said “there are a lot of gray areas in terms of how we procure recreational marijuana within Virginia—and the state needs “a clear strategy and plan to transition Virginia into a state that has legalized retail markets that can focus on these concerns.”

During her time in Congress, Spanberger voted twice on the House floor in support of bills to federally legalize marijuana. She also consistently backed legislation to free up banking services for the industry, protect all state cannabis program from federal interference and expand marijuana research. The former congresswoman additionally opposed a proposal to remove protections for universities that study cannabis.

She voted against certain reform proposals, however, including on measures to lift certain research barriers for Schedule I drugs and to revise federal policy to prevent past marijuana use from being used as a factor to determine eligibility for a security clearance.

Spanberger cosponsored bills to provide medical cannabis access for military veterans on two occasions, and she cosponsored the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act during the 116th Congress.

In 2018 she posted on Twitter that she supports legislation to reschedule marijuana to a Schedule III substance.

Medical marijuana
I support the CARES Act and HR 1227. I also support HR 1220 which would reschedule marijuana from Class I to Class III.

— Abigail Spanberger (@SpanbergerForVA) February 23, 2018

Earle-Sears’s public record on the issue is fairly limited, though she notably did not seem to dissent when Youngkin consistently blocked efforts to legalize marijuana for adult use in the state with his veto pen.

In a 2023 interview on the John Reid Show, for example, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said that “as soon as you turn around, there’s some other issue coming at you, and none of them makes any sense to anybody except to those who would want to keep us divided, because that’s what these issues are doing.” She pointed to cannabis reform as an example of that dynamic.

“I mean, why would we have legalized marijuana? Where are you going to get a job? Who’s going to hire you?” Earle-Sears said. “I mean, really. And so, you know, we’re just decimating communities.”

In 2021, Earle-Sears said recreational marijuana is “gonna destroy us” and revealed that she fired a previous employee for using it.

“I had to let somebody go who worked for me—found out he was on marijuana. You can’t work for me, you’re gonna destroy somebody’s home, you’re gonna crash. It’s gonna decimate us, because marijuana is a gateway drug,” she said. “There is no hope in that, there is no future.”

Marijuana Moment reached out to Earle-Sears’s campaign for additional detail on her cannabis policy positions, but a representative was not available by the time of publication.

Spanberger, for her part, said the state needs “a formalized, legal, emerging cannabis market.”

“We also need to make sure that [tax] revenues flow into Virginia and are used to strengthen our communities and public schools,” she said, adding that future sales law should be crafted so that it “prioritizes public safety and grows the Virginia economy.”

JM Pedini, executive director for Virginia NORML and development director at NORML’s national organization, told Marijuana Moment that “the choice is clear for Virginia voters: Abigail Spanberger supports legalizing and regulating cannabis sales for adults 21 and older. Winsome Earle-Sears does not.”

Meanwhile, a top Democratic Virginia senator recently said the state should move forward with legalizing recreational marijuana sales—in part to offset the Trump administration’s cuts to federal spending in support of states.

While the legislature has twice passed bills to create a regulated commercial cannabis market after the state legalized possession and use by adults in 2022, Youngkin vetoed both proposals.

But with anticipated increases in spending in Virginia resulting from various federal policy initiatives such as the withdrawal of federal welfare dollars to states, Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D) said it’s time to get serious about alternative revenue, which should include legalizing marijuana sales.

Del. Paul Krizek (D), chair of a joint commission tasked with studying and making recommendations on creating a cannabis market, said lawmakers’ “top priority is making sure that we’re not setting people up to fail and that we’re that we have good strict oversight mechanisms, and there’s phased expansion.”

“But we’ll get it going as soon as judiciously possible,” he said.

Krizek’s panel held its second meeting last month, with members taking input on tax and revenue options for cannabis sales.

That came almost two months after the commission first convened, as members discussed broad regulatory considerations and other issues related to THC potency, the hemp market and more.

Use and possession of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2022, but retail sales remain forbidden—a situation that’s helped fuel a multibillion-dollar illicit market. Despite efforts by Democrats in past years to legalize and regulate the retail system, Youngkin has stood in the way of the reform, vetoing proposals passed by lawmakers during each of the last two sessions.

Youngkin, however, is term-limited and unable to run for re-election in November. The governor’s replacement is likely to decide whether regulated products will become available in the commonwealth in the next few years.

The governor has also opposed more incremental reforms. In May, for example, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed deliveries of medical marijuana directly to patients at locations other than their own homes. It would have also updated product labeling requirements so packaging would more clearly indicate THC and CBD levels.

In March, after the legislature passed the legislation, Youngkin recommended an amendment that would remove language to allow marijuana to be delivered to places other than a patient’s private residence. Lawmakers later declined to make that change, however, and sent the unamended bill back to the governor.

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Youngkin in March also vetoed a host of other drug reform proposals passed by lawmakers, including the legal sales bill and another to authorize the prescription of a synthetic form of psilocybin as soon as the federal government authorizes its use.

Beyond the legal sales and psilocybin bills, the governor also rejected a number of other cannabis-related reforms this session, including efforts to resentence people serving time for cannabis offenses and protect the parental rights of those who legally use the drug.

Youngkin agued in a veto statement that legalizing sales of adult-use marijuana “endangers Virginians’ health and safety.”

“States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and adolescents’ health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue,” the governor claimed. “It also does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety.”

Even before the start of the current legislative session, Youngkin’s office had signaled it had no interest in the reform.

Asked by Virginia Public Media (VPM) late last year about the likelihood of a veto, Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the Youngkin, told the outlet: “I think you can cite the fact that time and time again he has been very clear on that.”

Reform advocates are already watching to see where his possible replacements stand on legalization and other cannabis policy changes.

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.

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