The Virgin Islands could see its first legal marijuana sales before the end of the year, the territory’s cannabis regulator said Friday.
Sunday marks three years since Act 8680 became law, setting up a framework for legalizing cannabis. But the legislation was far from simple. Blending previous attempts at medicinal marijuana legalization with new developments in edible cannabis products, the 65-page law also differentiated recreational adult use from sacramental cannabis use. The law required setting up 10 different licenses and permits, and eventually resulted in 170 pages of regulations, said Joanne Moorehead, the Office of Cannabis Regulation’s executive director since 2024.
Until licenses are issued, it remains illegal to buy or sell cannabis in the territory. But whether it’s legal for a person to simply possess cannabis remains a legal gray area, Moorehead said.
“We do have folks in the territory who are legally authorized and registered with OCR who are able 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.”
The issue will likely have to be decided by the courts, she said.
Some rules about cannabis are unlikely to change. It will always be illegal to drive intoxicated, she said. If the full rollout of legal cannabis sales happens as expected — at the peak of tourism high season — it may be necessary to remind visitors and locals alike that smoking in public is not allowed. In most cases, cannabis smoking would be confined to licensed lounges.
“Smoking is not legal everywhere. It is actually mostly restricted to private spaces with approval of property owners. Like, most hotels are smoke free. Government buildings, government spaces, all of the government buildings and spaces are smoke free, and that includes cannabis, not just cigarettes,” Moorehead said.
Starting from nothing, the office could be a lonely and overwhelming place, as former Executive Director Hannah Carty found out. In February 2024, Carty said her time was split between marrying the theoretical and practical elements of cannabis legalization and the nuts and bolts of setting up phone lines, building a website, and other mundane elements of ramping up an office.
Much like Carty, Moorehead started as an office of one.
“I lobbied strongly for some help,” Moorehead said. “I don’t think people really understood the breadth of trying to start an office from scratch.”
By the end of 2024, Moorehead had added an administrative assistant. As full legalization drew closer, the office added compliance and enforcement officers. That wasn’t easy either.
“I didn’t have desks. I didn’t have electrical outlets. I didn’t have telephones. I didn’t have any of those things. So there is an element of that that I think got lost in the public’s mind maybe about what it takes to create an office from scratch,” she said. “So now we do have somewhat of an infrastructure. We have computer equipment. We have telephones. We have staff. We have desks to sit at, which is lovely.”
With office furniture and rules and regulations in place, Moorehead said the Office of Cannabis Regulation was ready to function as it should — which also won’t be easy.
“Even looking at the licensing structure and the number of licenses, and the process that is required in the law, and the rules and regulations remember that all of that, again, is starting from scratch. There is nothing in existing government protocols or procedures that matches what we do here at OCR — nothing that matches those mandates that we’re given by the law and the rules and regulations because cannabis is very different,” she said.
Unlike alcohol or tobacco, cannabis remains illegal at the federal level. And unlike the mainland, all access to the Virgin Islands, as well as intra-island travel, involves federally administered airports and waterways.
Act 8680 requires the OCR to figure out how to transport cannabis between islands legally. It remains one of several yet-unresolved gray areas, Moorehead said.
“A lot of trying to fit what works or what is required for cannabis licensing permitting, cannabis rules and regulations, is a little like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole in terms of trying to fit those processes into existing government processes. So it has taken a lot of time, a lot of discussion, a lot of interaction with legal teams trying to make sure that we are not contravening anybody else’s mandate,” she said. “Other government offices each have their own mandate, their own laws to follow. You see what I’m saying? And that has it has been really, really, challenging just to try to get it all together and make it make sense in a way that it works for everybody and that every agency then follows their mandate and the law, as appropriate.”
Until federal rules change or a procedure is worked out, Moorehead urged people not to travel between islands with cannabis products. Doing so at a public airport or seaport runs the risk of confiscation and arrest. Doing so aboard a private plane or boat could also jeopardize the captain’s license, she said.
Still, progress was being made, she said.
“Just yesterday, we announced conditional approval of dispensary licenses. So they have a period of time as well where they’re going to be gearing up and doing what they need to do in order to be, receiving the cultivated plant, material, testing facility hopefully should be announced shortly as well. So we’re still rolling ahead,” Moorehead said.
Manufacturing license applications would soon be open, she said. Research and development license applications were already available.
“We’re moving ahead with all of the other things as well,” Moorehead said. “We have all of the other pieces to write out, all of the permits and the use permits and the event permits and all of those things that still need to be, fleshed out. But, yeah, we’re still moving ahead and I’m saying ‘hopefully.’ I’m very hopeful and optimistic. I think that we will see legal cannabis sales by the end of this year.”
