Lieutenant Governor signs the 2024 Cannabis Rules and Regulations

May 13, 2024. The Lieutenant Governor of the Virgin Islands signed the Cannabis Rules and Regulations into effect, completing the rulemaking the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act gave the Office of Cannabis Regulation 180 days to produce under § 777(a)(1). The rules fill in the operational framework the statute left open: license application format, merit-based scoring under section 777-15, dispensary operations under section 777-13, advertising, testing, transport, and enforcement.

The signing also started a second regulatory clock. Section 7 of the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act directs the Office of Cannabis Regulation to begin issuing license and permit applications “no later than 12 months after the promulgation of the rules and regulations for this act.” Counting from May 13, 2024, that clock ran through May 13, 2025. The first cultivation and testing facility applications opened within that window.

What the rules do not settle

The 2024 Rules codify the merit-based scoring process every applicant is now reviewed against: a 1000-point rubric split across social equity, financial capacity, operational readiness, local knowledge, and ownership diversity. They restate the per-island dispensary and cultivation caps from § 787 of title 19. They do not, on their own, set the license fee schedule. That framework comes from the Cannabis Advisory Board’s Fee Schedule votes and from the amendment block at §§ 800a through 800h that was added to chapter 34 later in 2024.

The rules also restate the inter-island transport prohibition at § 777(a)(4). Cannabis cannot move between St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, which means every license application is scored against its own island market.

What to watch

The 2024 Rules were drafted in a pre-amendment window. Governor Bryan had not yet signed Act 8925, the Cannabis Advisory Board had not yet been restructured to add four cabinet commissioners as voting members, and the non-resident Medical Cannabis Certification Form was still valid for six months rather than 30 days. Several operational sections of the 2024 Rules will need revision to match the amended statute. The legality guide tracks which sections of the Rules still govern and which are superseded by Act 8925.