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Three years after Virginia lawmakers voted to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults, the General Assembly is finally moving ahead with efforts to create a marketplace for the manufacture and sale of recreational cannabis.
There’s a long way to go. And even supporters don’t agree on an approach — or know whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will go along.
On Friday, a Senate committee advanced a bill to get a regulated retail system up and running by Jan. 1, driven partly by concern that an illicit market is already flourishing as the state tries to get its act together.
“We already have a $3 billion adult-use cannabis market. It’s just being run by drug dealers who are selling untested, unlabeled, untaxed products,” said Greg Habeeb, a former Republican delegate lobbying on behalf of the Virginia Cannabis Association. “We are not creating the market. We are regulating the market.”
Though Democrats — and some Republicans — have expressed interest in passing some kind of legislation to rein in the marijuana marketplace, Youngkin has sent signals that he’s not on board, though he stopped short of promising a veto.
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