Since its height in 2020, the "green rush" to grow hemp in Southwest Virginia has slowed to a standstill as falling prices eventually made harvesting pointless, but that hasn't stopped local growers from seeking to stake their claim in what they hope will eventually be Virginia's new legal cash crop: cannabis.
With bipartisan efforts in the state legislature making to the governor's desk, it looked possible that the 100-plus members of the farming and small business network Purely Appalachia might be growing and selling cannabis in Southwest Virginia very soon.
But Gov. Glenn Youngkin's recent veto of HB 698 and SB 448 means the group's hopes will be stalled, at least until his term ends. Purely Appalachia founder Heather Langston said the two bills, while not identical, were similar in involving small business owners and local communities in cannabis production. Currently, legal medicinal marijuana production and distribution is dominated by four or five large multistate operators, she said.
"This was entirely a Glenn Youngkin decision. There's a lot of support from legislators and people in Virginia for us to open up a recreational cannabis industry," Langston said. "We are trying to encourage friends and neighbors to find resilience that goes past one political person."
Read more at cardinalnews.org