OCR opens the first dispensary license application window

Week of June 30, 2025. The Office of Cannabis Regulation opened the first application window for the Cannabis Dispensary License, receiving applications through the Office’s website for a minimum of 60 days. The window was announced by Executive Director Joanne Moorehead at the June 4, 2025 Cannabis Advisory Board meeting and aligns with the merit-based review framework in section 777-15 of the 2024 Cannabis Rules and Regulations.

The application format

The Cannabis Dispensary License application mirrors the Commercial Cultivation License application format already in use. Part 1 corresponds to Section 1 of the Merit-Based Process in the approved Rules and Regulations. Part 2 corresponds to Sections 2 through 8. Every applicant is scored against the same 1,000-point rubric the Cannabis Advisory Board ratified in 2024, with points allocated across social equity, financial capacity, operational readiness, local knowledge, and ownership diversity. The minimum 60-day window matches the Office of Cannabis Regulation’s practice for the cultivation round that preceded it.

Cultivation and testing closed the week before

Commercial Cultivation and Micro Cultivation Permit applications that had been open since March 31, 2025 closed on June 27, 2025, three days before the dispensary window opened. Applications were considered complete only on payment of the non-refundable application fee, which had been set at the October 21, 2024 Cannabis Advisory Board meeting on a three-tier scale running from $2,500 to $7,500. Micro Cultivation Permit applications are scheduled to reopen before the end of 2025, since no statutory cap applies to that category and the Office of Cannabis Regulation closed them only to facilitate administrative review alongside the commercial round.

Laboratory Testing Facility proposals opened to the public at the same time as the dispensary round. The Office of Cannabis Regulation flagged testing as operationally critical: cultivation license holders cannot sell product unless an accredited in-territory testing facility exists to certify potency and contamination standards.

What is still not open

Manufacturing, Research and Development, Third-Party Vendor, and Agent Registration license categories remain closed as of the June 4 announcement and are scheduled to open in the months following. Executive Director Moorehead also reported that the Office of Cannabis Regulation is in active discussions on banking access and inter-island transport, both of which require legislative or regulatory adjustments before any workable framework can be stood up. Neither has a public timeline.

What to watch

The first dispensary window is the window that produced the ten conditional license awards the Office of Cannabis Regulation published on January 16, 2026. Applicants who missed the June 30 window will need to wait for a second round on any island where the statutory cap at § 787 is not already filled. The operator guide covers the merit-review rubric and the post-conditional steps every applicant must complete before a Certificate to Operate can issue.