Virginia’s New Medical Marijuana Law Begins on July 1

Virginia’s new medical marijuana law took effect on July 1. The state will select 5 processing and dispensing companies. The new program will be regulated by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

Doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants can all recommend patients with qualifying conditions for the medical marijuana program, according to WTVR 6 News.  Patients will only have access to THC-A or CBD oil. Neither cannabinoid is intoxicating.

To legally carry the oils patients must have a state-issued card.

The state is broken into sectors to ensure that one company serves each sector. The sectors are known as health service areas. The sole company for that area is responsible for all cultivation, extracting, processing, testing and dispensing of approved products.

Virginia medical marijuana patients are not protected when it comes to their jobs. Patients will have to resort to using only CBD isolate products.

Chief Operating Official for Green Leaf Medical Cannabis, Kevin Goldberg said, “We’re going to be making a combination of products with CBD and THC-A, and we’re also going to be making products that have only CBD isolate or only THC-A in them. The reason we’re going to be making all these different combinations is that they have different medicinal benefits for different diagnoses.”

Dispensaries are expected to be open by end of 2019.