“When you take 90 percent of the business we created over the past five years and take it away, why would I stay in a state that doesn’t support my business and my family?” said Evan Somogyi.
Chicago-based Cresco Labs announced this week that it’s extending the deadline to close its pending acquisition of Columbia Care, which owns Green Leaf Medical and its Richmond-area dispensaries.
Amid the floundering effort to legalize recreational marijuana sales in Virginia, Richmond’s lone state-approved medical cannabis provider continues to expand with its third standalone retail dispensary in the region.
The bill would have allowed the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority to begin to issue licenses for recreational cannabis businesses on July 1, 2024, and would have permitted existing state-sanctioned medical cannabis companies to grow and sell recreational cannabis products starting July 1 of this year.
Amid the deaths of similar bills in the House of Delegates, legislation that would establish a recreational cannabis retail market in Virginia took a step forward on Thursday
Green Leaf Medical, thwarted in its efforts to open in Chesterfield County, had no problem launching a new store called Cannabist in the city of Richmond.
Green Leaf’s attorney suggested that Chesterfield political leaders were ideologically opposed to the idea of a marijuana dispensary within the county. “I can assure you it’s not based in politics,” the county attorney’s office responded.
Though Virginia has legalized the use of marijuana, county staff determined that federal illegality of cannabis prevents Chesterfield from approving a building permit for a business that intends to sell marijuana.
“If the legislature makes progress on creating a retail market, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the timeline,” Jeremy Preiss told BizSense.
GrowGeneration will occupy about 9,000 square feet the Meadowbrook Plaza shopping center and open in September.
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