Haphazard Enforcement
‘They’re learning as they go’
Retailers across the state say they’ve tried to comply with the law, but they’re still getting fined.
In the Rockbridge and Roanoke areas, VDACS has fined eight shops in amounts ranging from $500 to $154,500, according to the agency’s records. Three of the shops are near Lexington.
Lexington Tobacco and Vape received a preliminary fine of $11,000 in March for carrying six products that VDACS deemed illicit. The case remains open, according to VDACS records.
Manager Alex Ferris said the VDACS inspector didn’t tell her to take products off the shelves. Instead, the inspector took pictures of the products and let Ferris know a day later that some of the products were not allowed.
“As far as [an] actual citation, it’s not properly handed to us right then and there,” Ferris said. “They’re a new department in Virginia, so they’re learning as they go.”
Johnson said he has received mixed messages from VDACS staffers. One staffer told him a product with fruit on the packaging was okay to offer for sale. But an inspector told him to stop selling it, he said.
“The message isn’t communicated properly through VDACS, and I think that’s because they’re spread really thin,” Johnson said. “They’re trying to enforce more than what’s needed.”
VDACS employs only six inspectors to monitor all known hemp businesses in the state, said Wallace, the head of the agency’s communications office. The Office of Hemp Enforcement should have eight inspectors once fully staffed, Wallace said. The office started hiring in September 2023.
Johnson said VDACS didn’t do a good job of making sure shops knew what was legal and what wasn’t. He said he remembers receiving one letter after the 2023 law went into effect.
But Wallace said he also published a press release on VDACS’ website that was quoted in multiple media reports. The agency posted on social media as well, he said.
“They did a horrible job to be honest,” Johnson said. “Every single vendor we talked to knew something was happening but didn’t know what to do.”
VDACS has hit some shops with steep fines. Mr. Puffers Lexington Tobacco and Vape was fined an initial $154,000 for 61 violations in March.
VDACS fined Mr. Puffers, a smoke shop in Rockbridge County, in March. Photo by Ned Newton
Shop owners can get back into compliance and reduce the fines by signing a consent resolution form within a month of receiving citations, according to VDACS records. They also must admit that illegal products were on the shelves. For example, Mr. Puffers could reduce its $154,000 fine to $10,000 if its owner signs the form, according to the letter the shop received from VDACS.
Mr. Puffers has not yet signed the consent resolution form, according to VDACS records. The shop’s manager refused to speak to reporters.
Ferris, the manager of Lexington Tobacco and Vape, said her shop also has not signed the form.
“I have no reason to believe my boss would lie to me and say illegal products are legal,” she said. “In my opinion, everything we’re selling we are allowed to sell.”
The future of cannabis policy in Virginia
Hemp producers thought Virginia was moving closer to the creation of a recreational marijuana market—and they thought they were positioning themselves to transition into selling pot.
But the 2023 restrictions on hemp dashed their hopes. And, in the current political climate, it’s not going to happen anytime soon, said Paul Seaborn, a University of Virginia business professor.
“I think the biggest factor in what happens next will be the results of our next state elections,” he said.
If Democrats win the governor’s seat and maintain control of the General Assembly, a retail marijuana market will likely make it into law, Seaborn said. But the future is hard to predict if Virginia maintains its divided government, he said.
The state started to move toward acceptance of recreational marijuana in 2021 when the General Assembly passed a bill allowing residents to grow marijuana plants in their backyards. The law allowed people to possess an ounce of marijuana. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed it into law.
But in early 2024, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have set up a retail market for recreational marijuana.
Youngkin defended his veto by saying that states that have created a recreational retail market for marijuana “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.”
Video by Ned Newton