On June 29, Virginia enacted a law allowing up to 350 recreational marijuana stores to open starting July 1, 2027

Virginia enacted state budget legislation on June 29, 2026, that creates a regulated retail market for recreational marijuana, the Associated Press reported. The law allows up to 350 cannabis stores to open across the state beginning July 1, 2027, for sales to adults 21 and older.

According to the AP, the law raises the state's adult possession limit from 1 ounce to 2 ounces and continues to allow people to grow a small number of plants at home. The state will levy an excise tax on top of its sales tax, a mix legislative budget documents expect to generate about $51 million in the program's first year, the AP reported.

Virginia legalized adult possession and home cultivation in 2021 but did not enact a framework for retail sales outside its medical marijuana program. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a retail sales bill in 2024, the AP reported. Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who took office in January 2026, vetoed the legislation that emerged from this year's session before working out a compromise with lawmakers that was rolled into the budget bill, according to the AP.

The retail market is authorized by House Bill 30, according to a July 1, 2026, release from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) on behalf of the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA). The same legislation moved oversight of regulated hemp products from VDACS to the CCA, which the agencies expected to happen in August 2026, and eliminated the "25:1 ratio" that had allowed some hemp products to exceed 2 milligrams of total THC if they contained 25 parts CBD for every part THC. Beginning Aug. 15, 2026, a product with more than 2 milligrams of total THC per package cannot be produced or sold as a hemp product in Virginia, the release said. A separate law, Senate Bill 543, gave the CCA authority to take enforcement action against unlicensed cannabis and hemp businesses.

Later developments: The CCA's retail market page lists an initial draft of regulations released in September 2026, review by the Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council beginning in October, finalized regulations in December 2026 and regulations published and effective in January 2027. By Feb. 1, 2027, the authority plans to open conversion applications for pharmaceutical processors and industrial hemp processors or growers and begin the application process for some microbusiness licenses, with a May 1, 2027, deadline to issue certain initial licenses and retail sales beginning July 1, 2027, according to the page.

This report is not legal advice.