By this time next year, Virginia will have retailers selling recreational marijuana.
More than 300 licenses will be awarded to businesses that want to open up retail locations, selling recreational marijuana as early as next summer. Senator Lashrecse Aird is a Democrat from Petersburg who introduced legislation creating the marketplace, and she says the Cannabis Control Authority will prevent stores from being clustered in places like Charlottesville, Richmond and Arlington.
"There are provisions within the legislation that not only require the Cannabis Control Authority to take into account how close together some of these licenses may be, but also to provide the General Assembly with an analysis that they have done that," Aird says.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from stores clustered together is cannabis deserts, places where local governments use their zoning authority to deny any and all applications.
"A desert is also a public health problem, just like clustering is a public health problem," says Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council vice chairman Ngiste Abebe. "Because what we know from states like California that use local opt-out, you know, you still cannot access a legal dispensary in over 50% of California. And what happens? The void is filled by illegal, unregulated, untaxed operators."
Businesses will not be allowed to have more than five licenses each, a provision designed to prevent big businesses from monopolizing the marketplace.
