Examining the impact of legal marijuana sales as bill heads to Gov. Youngkin's desk

(WSET) — Virginia state lawmakers have passed a bill that would allow retail marijuana sales to start next year. The bill now heads to Governor Glenn Youngkin's desk.

In 2021, lawmakers in Virginia made personal use of marijuana legal up to a certain amount. A person can own up to four plants and possess up to one ounce in public, but recreational sales are against the law.

JM Pedini, Executive Director of Virginia NORML, said not allowing legal sales in the past has only grown the demand.

"In the absence of legal retail access, what the Commonwealth has experienced is a ballooning of its illicit market from $1.8 billion prior to legalization taking effect to now over $2.4 billion every year," Pedini said.

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Democrat Delegate Paul Krizek, the House bill patron, said the goal is to allow for an affordable retail market. The bill would implement a maximum tax of 11.625%, where 8% of funds would go to the state, 2.5% would stay local, and 1.125% would be delegated for education.

"We have to do this because we have to do something about that $3 billion illicit market. It's time to give Virginians access to a safe, tested, and taxed product," Krizek said.

Dr. David Richards is the Chair of Political Science at The University of Lynchburg. He said previous states that have legalized recreational use have seen major tax benefits, but Richards doesn't foresee the same for Virginia.

"I don't think Virginia will quite see that big bump in tax revenue because it's legal in DC, for example, so I don't think there's going to be this explosion of demand," Richards said.

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Virginia Attorney Amanda Rieman said a legal market could bring in between $31 and $62 million during the first year and provide a variety of jobs.

"There's also cultivators, processors, technicians, trimmers who trim and weigh the marijuana so it would be a lower wage job but it would probably be around a medium wage industry in Virginia," Rieman said.

Republican Senator Mark Peake said it's the drugs' impact on the jobs that's cause for concern.

"You have more workplace incidents because of smoking pot and going to work and using machinery and getting injured so that's one of the bigger problems, more injuries," Peake said.

The Lynchburg Democratic Committee was reached out to for comment, but they canceled at the last minute.