Chesapeake, VA Cannabis Regulations: Home Cultivation (2026)

Section 4.1-1101 of the Code of Virginia sets the home-grow rule that applies inside Chesapeake city limits. Only a person 21 years of age or older can cultivate, and the cap is four marijuana plants for personal use at the grower's place of residence. The cap belongs to the household, not the individual: the statute defines a household as everyone who lives in the same house or other place of residence, whether related or not. Four adults sharing one Chesapeake address still share a single limit of four plants, because at no point can a household contain more than four.

The plants must be grown at the person's main place of residence. A second home, a rental unit the grower does not live in, a friend's garage or a storage unit does not qualify under this section.

Subsection B adds three duties for every home grower. First, no plant can be visible from a public way without the use of aircraft, binoculars or other optical aids, so a fence, an enclosed porch or an indoor grow is the practical answer for a Chesapeake lot that faces a street or sidewalk. Second, the grower must take precautions to prevent unauthorized access by persons younger than 21, which means locks or a secured room wherever minors live or visit. Third, each plant needs a legible tag showing the grower's name, driver's license or identification number, and a notation that the plant is being grown for personal use as authorized under the section.

The section's history line lists acts from 2021, 2022, 2023 and a 2026 act (2026, Sp. Sess. I, c. 1), and the text published for October 12, 2026 carries the graduated penalty ladder for plant counts above four. That ladder runs from a $250 civil penalty up to a felony, and it is laid out under violations below.