Virginia’s legal retail cannabis market will open next July, but will it affect North Carolina? Lawmakers here expect lost revenue from those who will travel over the border to purchase cannabis legally.
Some lawmakers are reacting to the compromise reached in the Commonwealth and how it may change the conversation around regulating the industry in North Carolina.
Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, announced the deal with lawmakers which, if passed, would make it possible to legally buy cannabis in Virginia, with little enforcement focused on whether it is transported out of state.
“We have agreed to a proposal for a safe, legal, well-regulated cannabis market here in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Spanberger said earlier this week.
Virginia’s marketplace is essentially a license system. Regulators plan to issue licenses to up to 350 businesses to legally sell cannabis starting July 2027. Right now, it’s legal to possess up to an ounce of cannabis in Virginia, but not to purchase it.
At its launch, the state will add six percent on top of base sales tax on all cannabis purchases. They say 75 percent of that revenue will go into a fund to provide those businesses access to capital, so they can survive in the highly regulated market.
It’s a compromise that North Carolina lawmakers have been working to find.
“Yet again, you know, North Carolina is, you know, behind our peers when it comes to opportunities; safe opportunities to expand industry in the state,” said Rep. Zack Hawkins (D), Durham.
Hawkins serves on Governor Josh Stein’s cannabis advisory council. The North Carolina Advisory Council on Cannabis, which the democratic governor established through an executive order in June 2025, found that the Tar Heel State has one of the largest unregulated cannabis markets in the nation at roughly $3.2 billion in annual sales.
In April, it recommended lawmakers legalize marijuana through a tightly regulated system to ensure consumer safety and bring in millions of dollars of revenue. Now, Hawkins worries some of that revenue will be lost to Virginia.
“Places even within an hour are fair game for people to cross [to Virginia]. Look no further than casinos. Look no further than when we had the lottery. So those estimations are probably what, 10 percent of folks? And of course people travel across North Carolina, across borders. So we can anticipate that on a regular basis,” he said.
Meanwhile, North Carolina lawmakers are miles away from marijuana. They’re still discussing how to regulate the buying and selling of both kratom and hemp-derived products like gummies and drinks. The Senate bill, which is now in committee, would fine businesses that sell to anyone underage. Senate leader Phil Berger has said he doesn’t think the bill goes far enough.
“I think there are still conversations taking place. I don’t think there is a specific course of action that has been settled on as of yet,” said Berger.
Hawkins said it’s very common for lawmakers to look to other states of similar size in our region to see how they have tackled legislative issues. He expects lawmakers will look to how Virginia structured its cannabis marketplace for how our state will move forward.