Photo by Mark Newton
As opportunities to legalize marijuana sales go up in smoke, the legal and economic questions only get more complex.
Legislative efforts related to marijuana and industrial hemp have largely fallen by the wayside during the 2023 session. And on Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin told VPM News that action on setting up recreational cannabis sales would have to come from legislators. “I don’t write legislation for them; they’ve got to sort this out,” Youngkin said.
Greg Habeeb, a former Republican delegate who now represents the Virginia Cannabis Association, says there is now “not much of a path this year” for legalization efforts.
“There is a group of legislators who do not believe in creating an adult use market,” he says. “But a significant number of Republican legislators said they knew it was a problem, they liked the [legislative] framework, but they could not advance a bill because the governor’s office doesn’t support it. ... Each of the bills, we heard the same thing, ‘We can’t advance a bill unless the governor supports it.’ ”
The last remaining bill on the topic, SB 1133, would have empowered the Cannabis Control Authority to administer a retail marijuana market, but it was effectively killed on Tuesday. In addition, the proposed biennial budget cuts the authority’s share of the general fund for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 by $5.2 million and $8.2 million, respectively. House Appropriations Committee Chair Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, told WRIC on Wednesday that they “don’t need the money if we are not expanding this issue.”
“This vote is another huge disappointment for Virginians, the majority of whom favor swift access to retail sales,” Virginia NORML Executive Director JM Pedini said in a statement about SB 1133. “Legislation providing regulatory oversight is the best way for the commonwealth to protect cannabis consumers. By failing to take legislative action, lawmakers are electing to continue driving consumers to the unregulated, underground market.”
To that end, the Richmond Police Department acted on what they called “a danger and a significant threat to the quality of life in our community,” raiding Happy Trees Agricultural Supply, a Richmond hydroponics store that caters to marijuana users, and charging its co-founder Josiah Ickes with conspiring to commit a felony for possession with intent to distribute marijuana and a Schedule 1 controlled substance, which includes tetrahydrocannabinols but exempts industrial hemp and hemp products, marijuana and dronabinol.
Possession of an ounce of marijuana and four or fewer plants was legalized in 2021. But in its announcement, the police department notes the felony violations for possessing more than a pound of marijuana and more than 49 plants. “Likewise,” the statement issued Thursday continues, “the sale, manufacturing, and/or distribution of marijuana remains a crime.”
One raid was conducted Feb. 10 at the Happy Trees warehouse on 1809 Roane St. during the business’s weekly Tree Trade Thursday event, according to WRIC. “Our background is that we’re an agricultural supply store, and we help bring the community together, and that’s been our big focus,” Ickes told the news outlet after the search warrant was conducted. “We’re really saddened by what happened … because we really feel like it was some type of mistaken identity.”
On Wednesday, police raided the Happy Trees store on 1020 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. and arrested Ickes, 37, of Mechanicsville. Police said a judge had sealed both search warrants and could not release further details. If the amount of marijuana intended to be distributed was more than 5 pounds, Ickes could face a prison sentence of five to 30 years.
Happy Trees was founded in 2020 as “your neighborhood friendly hydroponics and indoor gardening shop.” In addition to the two sites in Richmond, there is a store in Fredericksburg. It sources its CBD products from “local farmers in Powhatan,” according to its website. At its Roane Street warehouse, it has held town hall meetings and “treehouse hangouts,” as well as a “How to Use Cannabis” festival in November 2021.
A biography of Ickes for the cannabis conference CannaCon says the business “assist[s] those wanting to cultivate the best cannabis possible,” adding that he also co-founded Happy Trees Experiences, “a community canna-tainment company.” When Ickes graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013, he was serving as co-founder of TotalTechProtection. His next venture, from 2016 to 2017, was WealthHog, a cryptocurrency diversification fund.
“Cannabis was a game changer for [my mental health],” Ickes said in a 2021 interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “and I wanted to share the knowledge and experience of growing your own medicine with others. That’s the goal of Happy Trees, to drag this product into the light and educate people on how they can take control of their own health by simply growing plants — after [it is legalized].”
As it stands now, however, it appears any successful changes to the marijuana market will have to wait until after voters decide whether to change the General Assembly’s membership in November.
“The status quo is total chaos,” Habeeb says. “The reality is, we’re the only state that has done this, legalizing growing, sharing, use, but not creating an adult use market. No one would create this situation if they could. Today’s legislators and today’s governor are the ones who have to create a solution to this problem. There is not a path for expanded adult use this year, and there is not a path for expanded medicinal use this year. They’re going to have to figure it out, and they’re going to have to figure it out soon.”
