Virginia made history when it legalized cannabis. Politicians celebrated. Press releases were issued. Advocates cheered.

Then the licenses went to corporations.

While Virginians were told that legalization meant freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity — the regulatory framework being built behind closed doors told a very different story. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority handed the emerging market to well-capitalized, out-of-state multi-state operators with Wall Street backing and lobbying budgets bigger than most Virginia small businesses earn in a year. The people who actually built Virginia’s cannabis culture — the small, independent, legacy growers who survived decades of prohibition, who served their communities when no legal option existed, who took the arrests, the raids, the criminal records, the losses — were handed barriers instead of licenses.

This is not an accident. It is a pattern.

Across the country, cannabis legalization has followed the same playbook. Corporate operators spend millions lobbying for regulatory structures that require millions to navigate. Licensing fees, compliance costs, facility requirements, and application processes are deliberately designed to be out of reach for small operators. The result is a legal market that looks like legalization on paper but functions like a corporate monopoly in practice. Virginia is following that same path — and the small growers who believed legalization would finally give them a seat at the table are watching that table get reserved for someone else.

The Virginia Small Grower & Legacy Cannabis Protection Act is the correction this state needs.

This legislation would create a dedicated, accessible licensing pathway for Virginia’s small and legacy cannabis growers — people who have been cultivating cannabis in this Commonwealth for years, in many cases decades, and who represent the authentic roots of Virginia’s cannabis culture. It would establish craft cannabis protections modeled directly after the policies Virginia already uses to protect craft breweries and family wineries — businesses that have generated billions in economic activity and made Virginia a national destination. It would prioritize Virginia-based, independent operators over out-of-state corporate chains, ensuring that the economic benefits of legalization stay in Virginia communities rather than flowing to distant shareholders. And it would provide a meaningful equity pathway for the growers and communities most harmed by decades of prohibition enforcement.

This is not radical policy. Virginia has done exactly this before.

When Virginia’s craft brewery movement was taking off, the Commonwealth created a regulatory environment that protected small producers, allowed farm-based operations, and gave independent operators a real chance to compete. The result was an industry that now generates over $1.4 billion annually, supports thousands of Virginia jobs, and draws tourists from across the country to experience something authentic and locally rooted. Virginia’s wine industry tells the same story. The same economic logic, the same community benefit, and the same political opportunity exists right now with craft cannabis — but only if the regulatory framework is built to include small growers instead of exclude them.

Right now it is built to exclude them.

Governor Spanberger has a chance to change that.

Throughout her career — in Congress and now as Governor — Abigail Spanberger has positioned herself as a champion of rural Virginia, small business owners, working families, and agricultural communities. She has fought for the kinds of Virginians who don’t have lobbyists, who don’t have PAC money, and who depend on their government to actually see them. Virginia’s legacy cannabis growers are exactly those Virginians. They are farmers. They are veterans. They are working-class men and women who built something real with their hands and their knowledge and their risk — and who are now watching a corporatized legal market treat them like they don’t exist.

Supporting the Virginia Small Grower & Legacy Cannabis Protection Act is consistent with everything Governor Spanberger says she stands for. It is pro-small business. It is pro-rural Virginia. It is pro-agricultural equity. It is fiscally smart — keeping cannabis tax revenue and economic activity circulating in Virginia communities rather than being extracted by out-of-state corporations. And it is politically courageous in the best sense — doing the right thing for people who need it before the window closes.

The window is closing.

Every month that passes without craft cannabis protections in place is another month that corporate operators consolidate their position in the Virginia market. Every license that goes to a multi-state operator is one less opportunity for a Virginia legacy grower to build something legitimate and lasting. The longer this goes unaddressed, the harder it becomes to correct — and the more Virginians who deserved better from legalization will be permanently shut out.

We are asking Governor Spanberger to act now. Sign the Virginia Small Grower & Legacy Cannabis Protection Act. Make Virginia the national model for equitable cannabis policy. Stand with the growers who built this industry and who are still here, still fighting, still waiting for the promise of legalization to mean something real.

They built this culture from the ground up — through prohibition, through criminalization, through every obstacle the law could throw at them. They are still here. They are still growing. And they deserve a Governor who sees them.

Sign this petition. Share it with every Virginian who believes the legal cannabis market should work for people — not just corporations. And tell Governor Spanberger: Virginia’s legacy growers can’t wait any longer.

Every signature will be delivered directly to the Governor’s office in Richmond. Our goal is 1,000 signatures. When we hit it, we show up.

The legacy lives. Sign your name