Virginia Awakening: The Transition From Medical to Recreational
In the latest Trade To Black podcast, presented by Flowhub, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell broadcast live from Arlington, Virginia, inside Jushi Holdings’ (OTCQB: JUSHF) Beyond/Hello dispensary — the only legal medical cannabis retailer within a 20-to-30-minute radius under the state’s Health Service Area structure. We sit down with Jushi’s leadership — Chief Strategy Officer Trent Woloveck, Chief Creative Director Andreas Neumann, and Stacey Rusch, founder of Stacey Rusch Lifestyle and cast member of The Real Housewives of Potomac.
Stacey Rusch launched the wellness brand Shayo with Jushi. Now selling in Virginia and Nevada, the low-dose gummies target new and female consumers, and Chief Creative Director Andreas Neumann described bringing the brand to market in roughly 40 days.
Rusch also addressed representation, noting that Black entrepreneurs make up less than 4% of cannabis owners and Black women far fewer, which she attributed largely to access to capital. She recounted being invited to two congressional briefings and joining the U.S. Cannabis Roundtable, using her platform to advocate for legalization and to frame cannabis as wellness rather than intoxication.
Washington correspondent Gretchen Gailey tees up the next day of the DEA’s administrative law judge hearing on rescheduling, where Nebraska, Idaho and Tennessee are set to testify. Gailey argued that the prohibitionist states are negotiating from weakness and that legislative change remains generational. She also flagged a Massachusetts ballot initiative seeking to repeal adult-use, warning that low midterm turnout could endanger narrow-margin programs.
Jushi Chief Strategy Officer Trent Woloveck detailed the company’s Virginia strategy ahead of the state’s medical-to-adult-use transition on July 1, 2027. Operating within an exclusive HSA II territory, Jushi expects to be short on biomass at launch and is doubling its indoor canopy. Woloveck addressed the intoxicating hemp ban, differences between medical and adult-use consumer behavior, and capital-markets plans — including a redomicile to Nevada and a potential exchange uplisting — while weighing in on stalled reform in Pennsylvania.
The episode closed with a boots-on-the-ground look at Jushi’s 93,000-square-foot Manassas cultivation and processing center, with a further 65,000-square-foot buildout underway, and its landmark Beyond/Hello dispensary. Neumann and Woloveck discussed the building’s branding and the surrounding Northern Virginia economy — home to a large share of the nation’s data centers — which they said helps make lenders comfortable financing cannabis, underscoring why the state is widely viewed as a sleeping giant.
