A federal judge hit pause on a new law requiring businesses to surrender intoxicating hemp-derived products to the Virgin Islands government Wednesday amid a lawsuit from one retailer who claimed that the government raided its store and confiscated $18,000 worth of products nine months before the law was even enacted.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy granted a temporary restraining order to Homegrown Bar and Grill and prohibited the government from enforcing a section of the law — approved by the 36th Legislature and signed by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. last month — for two weeks. The section in question required businesses to surrender inventory for products containing:
-Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA);
-Delta-6 tetrahydrocannabinol;
-Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol;
-Delta-10 tetrahydrocannabinol; and
-any other intoxicating cannabinoid products
According to Wednesday’s order, parties in the lawsuit have until March 5 to submit witness and exhibit lists to the court and a hearing is scheduled for March 11 on St. Thomas.
Homegrown’s lawsuit claimed that the St. Thomas business possessed a valid license from the V.I. Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department at the time it was raided in April 2025 and that the new law failed to provide a mechanism for compensating retailers who surrender their inventories. Molloy wrote that Homegrown met the standard for a restraining order by showing that the seizure “lacks a lawful basis” and that being forced to surrender the remainder of its inventory could put the retailer out of business altogether.
Homegrown’s attorney, Robert Leycock, argued that the seizure and section of the law mandating surrender violate the Fifth Amendment’s “Taking Clause,” which prohibits the government from confiscating private property for public use. After noting that the restraining order would place a relatively small burden on the government, Molloy found that public interest weighed in favor of an injunction because the case “involves substantial constitutional rights.”
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. signed a law legalizing medicinal marijuana use in 2019, and he attempted to expand it to include sacramental use — and generate more tax revenues — less than a year later. The 34th Legislature approved recreational cannabis use for adults in the last days of 2022, and Bryan signed the measure into law the following month. Joanne Moorehead, director of the V.I. Cannabis Regulation Office, told the Source last month that there are people in the territory who have been authorized by OCR to possess and grow marijuana.
“At this time, there are no legal sales of cannabis in the territory,” she said. “Depending on the law school that they went to and depending on the attorney, I’ve heard different arguments about what that means for others who possess it, and are not registered medical patients, for example.”
She added that the issue will likely be decided by the courts.
