throughout the commonwealth. The oils will be available to patients who have registered with the state and have a doctor’s writ- ten recommendation. The products are derived
from cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical in the part of the can- nabis plant that doesn’t produce a high. CBD comes from industrial hemp or marijuana plants and has been used for several conditions, including to mediate side effects of cancer treatment, glaucoma, Tourette syndrome and anorexia due to HIV/AIDs. State legislators first crafted
Virginia’s medical cannabis oil program based on the idea it would serve only patients with severe epilepsy. The parents and families of children suffering from epilepsy spearheaded the charge to expand access to medical can- nabis oils in Virginia. Using inter-
Albo
national studies and impassioned testimonies, these parents changed the minds of legislators like former Del. David
B. Albo, a Republican from Fairfax County. “We all thought it was just another one of these potheads wanting to come here and smoke marijuana,” says Albo, now a partner and lobbyist at the law firm Williams Mullen who worked with one of the failed applicants for Virginia’s cannabis oil licenses. Persuaded by parents and
advocates, Albo and state Sen. David W. Marsden, D-Fairfax, pushed forward the 2015 legisla- tion that created a legal defense for people with severe epilepsy to possess cannabis oils, although the legislation doesn’t legalize medical cannabis oils. Albo says getting the bill passed was like pulling teeth. “It showed people that there are legitimate uses for marijuana,” Albo says. “This is not snake oil.”
After creating a legal defense
for its possession, the General Assembly then created a pathway for its production. Legislation passed in 2016 and 2017 autho- rized the creation of five licenses for pharmaceutical processers to grow cannabis plants and produce and dispense the oils with a permit issued by the Board of Pharmacy. In 2018, legislation was
passed to expand the use of the medical cannabis oils for any patient — not just ones with intractable epilepsy. The state-regulated oils may
not have more than 5 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical in cannabis plants that intoxicates people. There are also limits on the number of cannabis plants each site is allowed to grow and the amount of medical cannabis oil that may be produced. These limits are 12 cannabis plants per patient based on dispensing data from the last 90 days, and no amount of medical cannabis oil that is in excess of what’s needed for their operations.
AK WA
‘Extraordinarily rigorous’ Nicholas Vita, CEO of New
York-based Columbia Care, says Virginia’s application process was “extraordinarily rigorous.” Colum- bia Care, which operates dispen- saries around the country, won the license for the Hampton Roads area. “The detail that the Board of Pharmacy required of applicants and the way in which we had to describe the manufacturing process to assure both safety and quality were among the most thorough we’ve seen anywhere in the United States,” Vita says. Applicants who did not
receive a license say they want more information on why they weren’t picked, and they question whether the Board of Pharmacy had enough expertise to evaluate their plans. In a formal protest by an applicant called CBT, first reported by The Virginian-Pilot, the company accuses the Board of Pharmacy of inappropriate actions in the evaluation process involving a “lack of meaningful review and evaluation” and “failure to use industry experts and subject mat- ter experts.”
State cannabis programs
A total of 33 states, Washington, D.C, Guam (GU) and Puerto Rico (PR) have approved comprehensive public marijuana/cannabis programs. The Northern Mariana Islands (NMI) have legalized marijuana. There are 13 states that allow use of CBD products for medical reasons. Four states, American Samoa (AS) and the Virgin Islands (VI) have no public access program.
WA HI OR
AS GU NMI VI
PR AZ NM TX
Adult- and medical-use regulated program Adult-use only — no medical program Comprehensive medical marijuana program CBD/low THC program No public marijuana access program
www.VirginiaBusiness.com ID WY NV UT CA CO NE KS OK SD IA IL MO AR MS LA FL Source: National Conference of State Legislatures VIRGINIA BUSINESS | 29 AL IN KY TN SC GA MT ND MN WI MI PA OH WV VA NC DC NY MD
DE NJ
VT ME NH MA CT RI
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