Youngkin kills Democ­rats’ push to estab­lish legal mar­i­jua­na mar­ket in Vir­ginia

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R‑VA) vetoed leg­is­la­tion that would have estab­lished a legal mar­i­jua­na mar­ket in Vir­ginia after it was passed by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic-con­trolled leg­is­la­ture.
Mar­i­jua­na has been legal in Vir­ginia since 2021, but the state has yet to estab­lish a legal com­mer­cial mar­ket after the ini­tial law. Youngkin blast­ed the pro­pos­al as a dan­ger to the health and safe­ty of the state in a lengthy veto state­ment on Thurs­day.
“The pro­posed legal­iza­tion of retail mar­i­jua­na in the Com­mon­wealth endan­gers Vir­gini­ans’ health and safe­ty,” Youngkin said. “States fol­low­ing this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and adolescent’s health and safe­ty, increased gang activ­i­ty and vio­lent crime, sig­nif­i­cant dete­ri­o­ra­tion in men­tal health, decreased road safe­ty, and sig­nif­i­cant costs asso­ci­at­ed with retail mar­i­jua­na that far exceed tax rev­enue.”
He also argued that the bill failed to address conc …