Midway through February, already five states have filed bills to legalize adult use and one state has legislation to allow medical use, while a lawmaker in South Dakota wants to go in the other direction and outlaw the state’s current medical-use program.
In Nebraska, where voter-approved medical-use measures are still being challenged in court, lawmakers have filed four separate bills to implement the laws.
Other state bills introduced so far this year would decriminalize cannabis in three states where it is still illegal, allow for cannabis lounges in two adult-use states, require lab testing and track and trace in two states, increase law enforcement in New Mexico, and create new licensing restrictions in Montana.
But the fastest moving legislation that will likely hit a brick wall at the governor’s mansion are a pair of bills to create a legal adult-use market in Virginia.
Virginia House, Senate pass cannabis market legislation
Separately, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate have passed their own versions of bills that would create a regulated adult-use market.
Virginia currently has a medical use market with 29 licensed businesses, according to the CRB Monitor licensing database. The state legalized adult use in 2021, but it has yet to create an adult-use business licensing program as it has faced stiff opposition from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The Senate passed SB 970 with a vote of 21 to 19 on Jan. 31. A week later, the House passed the nearly identical HB 2485 on a 53-46 vote. Each bill is now going through the opposite chamber.
Both bills would increase personal possession from 1 ounce to 2.5 ounces and allow households to grow up to four plants. They would create the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, which would begin issuing licenses by Sept. 1, 2025. However, retail sales would not begin until May 1, 2026.
Localities could not prohibit marijuana businesses, but they could regulate their location and hours of operation. The bills would implement an 8% state sales tax and allow for up to 2.5% local tax.
However, Youngkin will likely veto any cannabis market bill that gets to his desk, as he did last year.
“Strong communities also work to prevent harmful drug use. The dangers of marijuana use, particularly among our young people, continue to grow,” he said in his State of the Commonwealth address in January. “We know that states with retail markets have seen significant negative impacts on children and adolescent health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with a marijuana retail market that far exceed the perverse benefit of ‘tax revenue.’”
Both houses would need two-thirds to vote in favor in order to override the governor’s veto. Given the last votes, particularly in the Senate, that appears unlikely.
Adult-use in Hawaii also looking unlikely
Bills to legalize adult use have been introduced in Kentucky (SB 36), New Hampshire (HB 198 and HB 75), Tennessee (SB 809 and HB 836), Texas (HB 1208) and Hawaii.
Hawaii has a pair of bills to legalize adult use and establish the Hawaii Cannabis and Hemp Office to regulate everything about the plant. They would tax both adult-use and medical. The legislation would take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
However, on Feb. 6, the House of Representatives recommitted HB 1246 to the committees of Agriculture & Food Systems and Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, effectively postponing it for a year, according to Marijuana Moment. Both committees had recommended the bill be passed with amendments on Feb. 4.
SB 1613, however, is still pending, with a public hearing before Senate committees scheduled for Feb. 13.
In Indiana, where cannabis is currently illegal, there are separate bills in the House and Senate to legalize medical marijuana. HB 1178 would require the Indiana Department of Health to implement and enforce the program. SB 113 would establish the Indiana Cannabis Commission.
Separately, there is another bill that would establish a procedure for the production and sale of cannabis. HB 1332 doesn’t specify whether the program would operate for medical or adult use. It also doesn’t legalize possession and use by individuals. It would create a cannabis commission to issue business permits, rather than licenses.
Indiana also has a bill (HB 1145) to decriminalize cannabis, as does Kentucky (SB 33) and Tennessee (HB 981/SB 923).
And in Nebraska, where voter initiatives that legalized medical use remain in limbo in the courts, the state legislature has introduced four different bills to implement the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act (Measure 438).
LB 483 would limit dosage to 300 mg of delta-9 THC and only allow tinctures and pills. LB 651 and LB 677 are similar and would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission. However, LB 677 would also set limits for all types of businesses licenses. Another bill, LB 705, would allow for social equity licenses.
On the other end of the spectrum, new South Dakota Rep. Travis Ismay, a Republican, has introduced HB 1101 to repeal that state’s four-year-old medical cannabis law. Last year, an initiative to legalize adult use in the state failed for the third time.
Other bills would change cannabis markets, licensing
Some other noteworthy bills introduced so far include efforts to legalize cannabis lounges in Maryland and New York (A 747). Maryland’s bills, HB 132 and SB 215, would limit lounges to social equity applicants.
Maine (HB 69) and Pennsylvania (HB 33) want to rein in diversion and adulterated cannabis with bills that would require lab testing and track and trace for their medical-use programs.
In New Mexico, where illegal cultivation has been a problem, HB 10 would establish an enforcement bureau within the state’s Regulation and Licensing Department.
Montana would extend its moratorium on new dispensaries until 2027 with SB 27. The bill would also require new licenses to be related to an existing licensed premises.
Finally, in Alabama, where a three-year effort to launch a medical cannabis market remains tied up in courts, Sen. Tim Melson has introduced SB 72, which would require the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission to hire a third-party consultant to evaluate and select from a pool of applicants who applied by Dec. 31, 2022. Melson introduced the original medical use bill that was signed by the governor in 2021.
Federal ban would maintain 280E restriction
One of the first cannabis-related bills to be filed in the 119th Congress is by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. S 471 would maintain the 280E business expense tax restriction if the DEA should reschedule marijuana to Schedule III. It’s been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.
Rep. Gregory Steube, R-Fla., has introduced a bill (HR 966) that would prevent the Department of Veteran Affairs from denying benefits to a veteran who participates in a state-legal marijuana program.
