Majority of Virginia Voters Favor Retail Marijuana Sales

Sixty percent of registered Virginia voters favor allowing for the sale of adult-use marijuana products by licensed dispensaries, according to statewide polling data compiled by The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University.

The positive survey results bolster the prospects for legislative efforts in the House and Senate to regulate the adult-use cannabis marketplace. Newly-elected Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has repeatedly expressed support for legalizing retail cannabis sales.

According to the poll, most Democrats and Independents favor the policy change, while most Republicans do not.

State lawmakers in 2021 enacted legislation legalizing the use, possession, and personal cultivation of marijuana by adults. That legislation called upon lawmakers to authorize licensed cannabis sales by no later than January 1, 2024. However, when Republicans gained control of the House and Governorship in 2022, they failed to advance legislation to do so. 

Although Democrats later regained the House, their subsequent legislative efforts to regulate retail cannabis sales were repeatedly vetoed by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. With Youngkin no longer in office, advocates are hopeful that lawmakers will successfully pass a adult-use cannabis retail sales bill this session.

“It’s been nearly five years since Virginia legalized cannabis,” said NORML Development Director JM Pedini. “Voters recognize the public safety urgency in taking marijuana out of the corner store and placing it behind age-verified dispensary counters.

“The illicit market has exploded in the absence of legal retail access,” added Pedini, who also serves as the executive director of the state chapter, Virginia NORML. “In addition to improving consumer safety, regulated sales will reinvest millions of tax dollars in Virginia communities and replace the underground market that drains local resources.”