At first, there was progress.
The United States passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp cultivation. Then, Virginia made it legal for adults to possess and grow marijuana for personal use in 2021.
Many hemp growers thought a legal retail market for pot would shortly follow, said Jason Blanchette, a hemp grower in Hampton Roads and president of the Virginia Cannabis Association.
“You had a product that was completely legal to possess, to grow at home, to share with your friends, but you had no legal way to buy a safe and regulated part of that product,” Blanchette said. “It just made no sense.”
Five years later, there still isn’t a way to legally buy and sell cannabis for personal use in the state. The resulting policy gap has been a nightmare for regulators, lawmakers and law enforcement, Blanchette said. It hasn’t been great for growers, either.
In the absence of a legal retail market for weed, hemp products stepped forward to meet demand. Hemp-derived products with higher levels of THC, marketed as delta-8 and delta-10, hit the shelves. Officials scrambled to contain them by reducing the total amount of THC, the chemical in cannabis that produces a high, in hemp products. The most recent restrictions expected to take effect in 2026 reduce that amount to impossibly low levels, growers say.
“It's a dying market,” said Julian Redcross, a Hampton-based hemp grower and co-owner of Yoagie Enterprises, the hemp business he runs with his twin brother, Jonathan. “They're killing it.”
Virginia’s General Assembly will consider new legislation for a retail cannabis market this session, which starts Jan. 14. Twice, the General Assembly passed legislation for a retail cannabis market. Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed both bills. Hemp growers say the Democratic majorities in the state’s House of Delegates and Senate and a new Democratic governor make them optimistic about this year’s odds.
Because hemp and marijuana are the same cannabis plant — the legal distinction between them being the amount of THC they contain — the transition for growers would be an easy one, Blanchette said.
But the combination of a prolonged wait for a legal market and mounting regulation on hemp products have “hamstrung” small-scale growers, Blanchette said.
“It's the absolute double whammy,” he said.
Some have been able to wait things out, while others have left the industry temporarily or permanently, Blanchette said.
Brad Wynne, co-owner of the Veg Out skincare line, started growing and processing hemp for CBD, a chemical in the plant associated with medicinal benefits, in 2019. But he decided to stop the operation in 2024.
“The price point had sort of shifted in a lot of ways, and it was just easier and cheaper for us to buy outside extract instead of using inside our own sourcing,” he said.
Julian and Jonathan Redcross started growing hemp in 2019. The brothers saw it as an opportunity to revitalize their family farm just outside Richmond. Their grandfather once grew tobacco on the land. They figured hemp, and eventually cannabis, wouldn’t be that far of a stretch.
For the first few years, business was good, but new restrictions dealt the brothers a blow. They decided not to plant any hemp in 2026 in hopes that lawmakers will approve a retail cannabis market this year.
“We didn’t want to take our space up with hemp if we can grow marijuana,” Jonathan said. “Marijuana goes for a much better price, unfortunately.”
But if this year’s attempt to get a retail cannabis market over the finish line fails again, Jonathan said they likely won’t continue growing hemp.
“Who’s going to buy it?” he said.
New restrictions mean people won’t be able to make products, like lotions with CBD, with hemp flower that meet the new legal limits, leaving hemp farmers at a crossroads. The best option for growers is to transition to cannabis, Julian said.
“It’s the only way you can save whatever you started doing,” he said.
