Manassas Business Owner Among 7 Suing VA Over Hemp Law Changes

MANASSAS, VA – A Manassas businesswoman is among the seven hemp business owners suing the state of Virginia over its new cannabis and hemp regulations, saying the restrictions will put them out of business and that the law amounts to an unconstitutional taking of their property.

Barbara Biddle, founder of Manassas’ District Hemp Botanicals and president of the Cannabis Small Business Association, tells Patch she and the rest of the law-abiding hemp industry in Virginia have had the rug pulled from under them by the state’s new cap on THC content in their products.

Hemp And Marijuana Regulation In Virginia

Virginians have been able to grow and sell industrial hemp products, provided their THC content remains below a certain level by weight, since 2015. That has led to major growth in the hemp farming, processing and retail industries, the business owners say in their suit.

Virginia legalized marijuana possession by adults in 2021, though it didn’t legalize the retail sale of the drug. The next year, the state passed a bill relaxing the process by which people could buy medical marijuana. In 2023, the state limited retail hemp products to no more than 2 milligrams of total THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive component, per package, but allowed an exception for products with CBD, a non-psychoactive component of marijuana often used to relieve pain, anxiety or other ailments. Products with more than 2 mg of THC could be sold if they contained at least 25 parts CBD for every one part THC (the "25:1 ratio" exception).

Now, as a result of new regulations passed not through a standalone bill, like the one Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger vetoed in May, but through the state budget, that 25:1 ratio exception has been eliminated – and these hemp shops argue the state’s actions will put them out of business.

Creating One Market, Destroying Another

The lawsuit argues that, though the budget signed into law on June 28 effectively destroys the existing hemp market by even more tightly restricting the manufacture, distribution and sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products, a year before a legal retail cannabis market is to be launched.

The legal business owners say there were given little warning and almost no transition period, effectively pushing their businesses off a cliff.

According to their lawsuit, some of the plaintiffs say about 85 percent of their existing inventory will be illegal as of August 15. Retail marijuana won't be sold legally until July 2027.

The budget “conferred exclusive commercial opportunities upon state-licensed marijuana operators. These entities are authorized to market, distribute, and profit from high-potency THC products, whereas substantially similar, lower-potency hemp products in Plaintiffs’ inventory are subject to enhanced restrictions,” the businesses claim.

That amounts to an uncompensated and unconstitutional taking of the existing hemp industry's property, the businesses say, a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution as well as provisions of the Virginia Constitution.

Businesses Invested According To VA's Existing Regulations

Biddle says she and other hemp product sellers have been trying to comply with Virginia’s evolving regulations and grow their businesses legally, making investments, taking out loans and signing long-term contracts involving products that are suddenly banned.

“We're hoping for time,” Biddle told Patch in a phone interview Monday. “You know, they gave us 45 days to adjust. No compensation for all of our investments that we made into a regulatory structure that they built for us. So we’re hoping we don't have to end up filing for bankruptcy, right? This is an industry of mom and pops.”

In the meantime, Biddle has had to shut her two storefronts, in Leesburg and Manassas. She says her landlord in Manassas has been very understanding and is giving Biddle time to figure out if her business can be saved.

For now, the group of seven retailers from around the state is hoping for an injunction to block the law from taking effect as their challenge works its way through the legal system. Their first hearing will be in Roanoke on Wednesday.