GOP Gov Youngkin Says He Has No Interest In Setting Up Legal Weed Market 2 Years After Legalization

A huge question hanging over the 2024 assembly session in Virginia is whether Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin can be convinced to move forward and finally allow the sale of cannabis, which was legalized over two years ago, yet still has no framework for buying or selling it. And judging from Wednesday's General Assembly meeting, it doesn’t seem like the situation will be solved anytime soon.

The burning question was put to Youngkin on the first day of the 2024 General Assembly session.  

Asked by reporters after his annual State of the Commonwealth address to the assembly whether he would support opening a retail market for recreational sales, he reiterated what he has said in the past.   

“I’ve said before, this is an area that I really don’t have any interest in,” Youngkin told reporters Wednesday. “What I want us to work on are areas that we can find a meeting of the mind and press forward for the betterment of Virginia.”

When asked a follow-up question if he would veto a cannabis market bill if one reached his desk, which would be his only weapon to stop one as Democrats control the legislature, Youngkin repeated that he doesn’t “have a lot of interest in it.”

Virginia Democrats Respond

Earlier in the day, noted WRIC, Democrats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates said at a press conference that they still consider cannabis a priority and several are carrying legislation in 2024 to set up a recreational market.

“It’s an important public safety matter that we have a regulated market,” Virginia House Majority Leader Charniele L. Herring (D-Alexandria) told reporters. “It’s sort of shocking that we’ve gone two years under Republican leadership in the House, and it stopped us from getting a regulated market.”

Herring said moving forward without a regulated market would allow people to continue to skirt Virginia’s laws on cannabis while endangering consumers and children. She cautioned Youngkin about the optics of a veto.   

“The governor should be careful,” Herring said. “A bill gets to his desk, and he vetoes it, I’m not sure what that communication is going to be to the public about their safety.”

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