Virginia's hemp rules just changed twice: a 2mg THC cap, and a new regulator
The 25-to-1 ratio allowance is gone, replaced by a hard two-milligram total THC cap per package as of August 15. Regulation moved from VDACS to the Cannabis Control Authority, which now has cease-and-desist power.
Two things happened to Virginia’s hemp market this summer, and either one alone would have been significant. Together they reset the category.
One: the ratio allowance is gone
Virginia previously allowed hemp products through a 25-to-1 CBD-to-THC ratio pathway. A product could carry more THC provided it carried proportionally much more CBD.
That allowance has been eliminated. As of August 15, 2026, a product with more than two milligrams of total THC per package cannot be produced or sold as a hemp product in Virginia.
Read the unit carefully. Per package, not per serving. A tin of ten gummies is one package. The whole tin has to come in under two milligrams of total THC, not each gummy.
For most of the hemp-derived THC products that have been moving through Virginia convenience stores, smoke shops and some bars over the past few years, that is not a tightening. That is a removal from the market.
Two: the regulator changed
Hemp product regulation has moved from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, which began regulating hemp products in August 2026.
If your compliance contact, your registration paperwork and your mental model all point at VDACS, they point at the wrong agency now.
Your existing registration is still good. Current Hemp Product Retail Facility Registrations remain valid until their expiration. You do not need to re-register early. You do need to know who you are dealing with when it comes time to renew.
The enforcement teeth are new
This is the part operators should read twice. Senate Bill 543 gives the CCA authority to:
- Take enforcement action against unlicensed cannabis and hemp businesses
- Issue notices of violation
- Issue cease and desist orders
- Impose civil penalties
Under the old arrangement, hemp enforcement was thinner and slower. A regulator with cease-and-desist power and civil penalty authority is a different animal, and it has just been handed a market where a large share of the inventory went non-compliant on August 15.
There is also a public tip line, 1-844-WEED-TIP, for reporting suspected illegal activity. Your competitors have that number. So does every customer who has ever been annoyed with you.
What is coming
A retail cannabis market is authorised, with sales set to begin July 1, 2027, and the CCA will establish licensing requirements for retail cannabis businesses.
Correction, September 2, 2026: we originally attributed the retail market framework to House Bill 30. HB 30 is the Budget Bill. VRLTA’s 2026 bill tracker gives the cannabis framework as HB 642 (Krizek), “Cannabis control; establishes framework for creation of retail marijuana market, penalties, report,” which passed the Senate with a substitute on a 21-19 vote on March 4. A nineteen-vote no side on a framework bill is worth remembering when the licensing rules get written.
Update, September 2, 2026: HB 642 was vetoed by the Governor, as was its Senate counterpart SB 542. Two further retail market bills, SB 671 and SB 826, failed. Four attempts in one session, none of them law. Virginia’s adult-use retail market still has no statutory framework behind it. Source: the Legislative Information System bill file for the 2026 session, which now drives our bill tracker.
That is ten months out, and it is the thing to plan around rather than react to. Anyone currently selling hemp-derived THC products is operating in the gap between a market that just contracted sharply and a licensed market that does not open until next July.
What to do this week
Pull every hemp product with THC content and check total THC per package. Not per serving. Not per gummy. Per package. Anything over two milligrams should not be on your shelf.
Get the certificates of analysis. If your supplier cannot produce a current COA showing total THC per package, that is your answer about whether to keep stocking them.
Check your registration expiration date and note that renewal now runs through the CCA, not VDACS.
Separate this from your tobacco compliance work, but do both now. If you sell hemp products you almost certainly also sell nicotine products, which means the October 1 ABC retail tobacco permit deadline applies to you too, and hemp wraps and glass pipes are explicitly in scope for that permit.
Decide about 2027. If hemp-derived THC has been a meaningful revenue line, the licensed retail market opening July 1, 2027 is the successor to it. Licensing requirements are still being established. Being early to that conversation is cheaper than being late.
Hemp and cannabis rules in Virginia have changed repeatedly and quickly, and reporting on them ages fast. Everything above traces to the sources listed below. Where a rule has moved since we published, we will say so in a dated note rather than quietly editing the text.
