HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Major changes are coming in the new year to the marijuana market in Virginia.
There will be new regulatory oversight by the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority for the state’s medical cannabis program.
The main focus of the authority will be on licensing and helping to keep dangerous cannabis products out of the wrong hands.
So far, 29 businesses have been penalized for selling illegal products across the Commonwealth.
They say the popularity of consumable hemp products that contain delta-8 or delta-10 has skyrocketed recently, but these products pose significant health and safety risks especially among kids.
“They don’t necessarily know what these products are all about in terms of their potency,” said Jeremy Preiss, acting head of the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. “They’re consuming them and they’re leading to, you know, it’s a big public health risk.”
So far, the Department of Agriculture has assessed penalties of more than $1.7 million to those 29 businesses.
Five of those dispensaries are in southeast Virginia — three in Williamsburg, one in Chesapeake and one in Virginia Beach.
One store in Williamsburg received a nearly $150,000 fine for selling gummies laced with amounts of THC way over the legal limit.
They say that in an effort to bring them into compliance, they offered a reduced fine for stores that were willing to remove the illegal products from shelves quickly.
“We’re moving from prohibition, from from a time when cannabis was 100% illegal, to legalization on a limited basis,” said Preiss.
The General Assembly asked the Cannabis Control Authority to look into potential changes they could make in order to further regulate cannabis products in the Commonwealth.
“They wanted to know what other states were doing and whether any of those approaches in other states might benefit Virginia,” Preiss said.
10 On Your Side reported earlier this year that pediatric ER visits skyrocketed in the Commonwealth because kids were consuming products laced with THC that look like candy and the ones that look like food, seem to be the biggest concern for everyone.
Pediatric ER Visits in the first half of 2023 show the Commonwealth is on track to break a record for kids and teens ingesting cannabis.
In the first half of 2023, more than 1,200 kids and teens went to the hospital for consuming cannabis. According to the VHHA, third and fourth quarter numbers aren’t out yet, but already, the number is on track to break the number of visits for the past three years.
One of the CCA’s proposals for lawmakers is to put the products that look like food behind the counter so staff can verify that the consumer is 21.
“You know, that’s what we do for cigarettes,” Preiss said. “That’s what we do for other types of products that we don’t think minors should have access to.”
Preiss said in some instances parents and caregivers are unknowingly giving products laced with delta-8 or delta-10 to kids.
“I don’t think a parent or a caregiver is going to look behind the counter to give something to their kid,” Preiss said. “But that’s what they’ve found, that a lot of these instances where there are poisonings, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, [it] stems from the unwitting consumption of these products.”
They also want to provide additional protections to minors buying hemp products online, too.
“Under Virginia law, you can access these products through online sales, and the person selling the product to you only has to verify your age if the product you’re buying is a smokable product,” Preiss said.
The CCA is also proposing further testing on products.
“So since we’re making them available, we believe that they should be as safe as possible,” Preiss said. “So we believe we should test for all these potential contaminants like other states do as well.”
Another goal for the year is to make sure people understand that you can get a DUI for cannabis-impaired driving, and there is an open container law that applies to cannabis in your car.
The CCA said another big priority in 2024 is making sure there is a pharmaceutical processor to provide medical cannabis to people in Health District 1 in the Shenandoah Valley. There isn’t one in that district right now due to legal hurdles.
They say, however, that they don’t want to be perceived as the cannabis police, but rather, regulators and educators.