SB 386 (2017) — The West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act

Last verified: May 2026

The Bill

Senate Bill 386 of the 2017 West Virginia regular session was the culmination of multiple legislative sessions of advocacy by Sen. Mike Woelfel (D-Cabell), Del. Mike Pushkin (D-Kanawha), the Marijuana Policy Project, West Virginia NORML, and a coalition of veterans, parents of children with severe epilepsy, and chronic-pain patients. Sen. Richard Ojeda (D-Logan) emerged as the primary Senate sponsor and the public face of the campaign in his coalfield district at the heart of the opioid crisis.

Ojeda’s pitch was almost entirely opioid-framed: West Virginia, with the highest U.S. opioid overdose death rate, needed a safer alternative to the prescription opioid pipeline that had over-saturated the state. As MPP’s Matt Simon (a WVU graduate and West Virginia native) put it: "Medical marijuana can be effective in treating a variety of debilitating conditions and symptoms," and "for many patients, medical marijuana is a far safer alternative to opioids and other prescription drugs."

The Vote

• Senate vote: 28 yeas, 6 nays (April 5, 2017). Senate President Bill Cole was opposed; key swing votes came from socially-conservative Republicans persuaded by the opioid-alternative framing.
• House vote: 76 yeas, 24 nays (April 4, 2017). House Speaker Tim Armstead was opposed but did not block the floor vote.
• House concurrence on Senate amendments: 74 yeas, 24 nays (April 6, 2017).

Justice Signature — April 19, 2017

Gov. Jim Justice (then a recently-elected Democrat; now Republican U.S. Senator) signed SB 386 on April 19, 2017. Justice’s signature came as a surprise to many at the Capitol; he had publicly expressed support for medical access shortly before signing. With Senate President Cole and House Speaker Armstead both opposed, Justice’s signature was the key reason the bill became law. Without it, a veto override would have required two-thirds majorities in both chambers — not guaranteed.

Justice’s 2017 signature has been retroactively interpreted as a populist political move: the opioid context made the bill nearly impossible to oppose without alienating a significant chunk of the rural Democratic electorate that put him in office.

What SB 386 Did

SB 386 created the legal framework for a tightly regulated medical cannabis program in West Virginia:

• Authorized possession and use of medical cannabis by registered patients with a "serious medical condition" (defined in § 16A-2-1, ~14 conditions; see qualifying-conditions page)
• Created a 30-day patient supply limit
• Authorized up to 30 dispensary permits, 10 grower permits, and 10 processor permits (later expanded to 100 dispensaries by SB 1037 in 2019)
• Created the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) to administer the program (a Bureau-housed approach rather than the independent commission Sen. Ojeda originally contemplated)
• Initially banned "dry leaf or plant form" — meaning even vaporizable flower was illegal (later amended by SB 339 in 2020 to add dry leaf for vaporization)
• Did not authorize edibles, smokable flower (combustion), or home cultivation — restrictions that survive to today
• Added the 3 ng/mL active-THC per se DUI rule for registered patients (criticized by NORML and patient advocates as a "patient trap")
• Imposed a 10% privilege tax on dispensary gross receipts
• Provided no workplace protections for registered patients; West Virginia remains an at-will employment state

What Came Next: The Four-Year Delay

SB 386 contemplated patient access by July 2019. Sales did not actually begin until November 12, 2021, when Trulieve opened West Virginia’s first dispensary at 1397 Earl Core Road, Morgantown. The four-year gap stemmed from federal-banking refusal (resolved by HB 2538 (2019) Cannabis Banking Act), vertical-integration / product-form fights (SB 1037 (2019), SB 339 (2020)), slow rulemaking, and 2020-2021 permit issuance. See four-year-delay page.

The Sponsor: Sen. Richard Ojeda

Sen. Richard Ojeda (D-Logan, retired) was a retired U.S. Army major and Logan County native who emerged as one of the most colorful figures in modern West Virginia politics. Ojeda resigned from the West Virginia Senate in January 2019 to mount unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. House, the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, and U.S. Senate. He ultimately moved to North Carolina, where he won the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District in March 2026 — meaning the original SB 386 author has fully exited West Virginia politics. See Ojeda page.

Subsequent Amendments

• HB 2538 (2019) — Cannabis Banking Act; allowed credit unions to bid for the state’s cannabis-program account, resolving the 2018 banking refusal that had stalled the program.
• SB 1037 (2019) — expanded the dispensary cap from 30 to 100 and authorized vertical integration (single MSO holding grower + processor + dispensary licenses). This is the change that produced the current Trulieve / Verano / Holistic / Curaleaf / Cannabist market structure.
• SB 339 (2020) — added "dry leaf or plant form" for vaporization, after the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board recommended whole-plant access in 2018. This is the change that allowed dispensaries to sell vaporizable flower — now ~65% of WV sales.

Practical Significance Today

SB 386 is the foundation of every medical-cannabis transaction, patient certification, dispensary license, and grower / processor permit in West Virginia today. The Act’s restrictive product-form rules (no edibles, no smokable flower, no home grow) and its lack of patient employment protections continue to define the program nine years after enactment. The 2026 reform attempts (HB 5260 edibles, HB 5259 home grow) all targeted SB 386 amendments that did not advance.