Legal to Hold, Illegal to Sell: Virginia and D.C.'s Missing Rec Markets

In Virginia and Washington, D.C., adults can legally possess and grow cannabis, but there's no legal place to buy it for recreational use. That's more than 9.5 million people.

In this video I walk through how Virginia went from legalization in 2021 to a retail launch now scheduled for July 1, 2027, what the new law sets up, and how the state is cracking down on gifting and high-THC hemp. Then D.C.: how a single line in Congress's spending bill has blocked sales since 2015, and how self-certified medical patients became the market.

Read the full article, timeline and side-by-side comparison at newyork420week.com

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:13 The gap
0:30 Virginia: five years of "not yet"
0:58 Virginia's new law
1:22 Virginia's gray market
1:42 Virginia medical
1:59 Washington, D.C.
2:17 D.C. medical
2:40 D.C. crackdown
2:52 Where that leaves us

Data sources: Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, D.C. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, and state and congressional records.

By Greg Silverstein (@sourcatjack) for @newyork420week