The April Schedule III rule covers licenses issued by US territories. Whether a USVI license counts as a medical license is the open question

October 16, 2026. The federal rule that moved medical marijuana to Schedule III defines a qualifying license as one issued by “a state entity (or by a District of Columbia entity or a federal territorial entity).” That text has been in federal regulations since April 28.

Vibe High’s April report on the order treated whether it reaches US territories as an open question. On geography, the rule answers it in its own definitions. A narrower question is still open, and it is a local one.

The document that sends a reader back to the April text was published on Wednesday, October 14.

The October 14 notice

On October 14, DEA published a notice of intent proposing to place two kratom compounds, 7-hydroxymitragynine and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, in Schedule I above a concentration of 1 milligram per gram in solids and 1 milligram per milliliter in liquids, acting on an HHS recommendation dated October 8. No temporary order can issue for 30 days, which puts the earliest date at November 13.

Nothing in it concerns cannabis, except one footnote.

The footnote explains why the two compounds have no currently accepted medical use. It walks through DEA’s traditional five-part test, then says that “in a recent published letter in a different context, HHS applied an additional two-part test” for substances that fail the five. Part one of that test asks:

whether there exists widespread, current experience with medical use of the substance by licensed health care providers operating in accordance with implemented jurisdiction-authorized programs, where medical use is recognized by entities that regulate the practice of medicine

Part two asks whether credible scientific support exists for at least one of the conditions part one covers. The footnote then cites the source of that standard by name: the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memorandum to Attorney General Merrick Garland of April 11, 2024, “Questions Related to the Potential Rescheduling of Marijuana.”

The word is jurisdiction-authorized, not state-authorized. That is a fact about the wording. DEA was writing about kratom and said nothing about territories.

What the April rule actually says

The April order is narrower and more specific than most summaries of it. Published April 28 as a final rule, it added this definition to DEA’s regulations:

State medical marijuana license means a license issued by a state entity (or by a District of Columbia entity or a federal territorial entity) authorizing the licensee to manufacture, distribute, and/or dispense marijuana or products that contain marijuana for medical purposes.

Three points follow from it.

• The territorial language is express. The Controlled Substances Act already defines “State” to include any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States. The rule did not have to lean on that definition, and it did not. It named territorial entities in the operative text.
• Registration runs off the same definition. The rule directs DEA to set up an expedited review process for entities holding state medical marijuana licenses that seek registration as a marijuana manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. A licensee that meets the definition is in that queue. One that does not is not. DEA opened Form 225 registration for manufacturers, distributors, and labs on October 5.
• The limit is the last three words. The license has to authorize activity “for medical purposes.” Adult use is outside the definition, which is why the stayed DEA hearing is the proceeding that matters for most of the territory’s program.

The Office of Cannabis Regulation has published nothing on the April rule since it issued, and has not said how it reads any part of it.

Where it leaves a Virgin Islands licensee

The question that remains is about license structure, not geography.

The territory issues ten license and permit types under the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act: cultivation, manufacturing, dispensary, research and development, testing facility, micro-cultivation, and four permit classes. None of them is a medical-only license. The Cannabis Dispensary License is a single license covering medical, sacramental, and adult-use sales at the same counter.

So whether a Virgin Islands dispensary holds a license “authorizing the licensee to dispense marijuana for medical purposes” is a question about what the license text says and how DEA reads it. No source found answers it. OCR has not addressed it in public, and no party in either federal track has raised it.

The medical side of the program is small. Executive Director Joanne Moorehead reported 40 active patients to the Cannabis Advisory Board on September 24, a figure she said moves between 40 and 45 with renewals. One sacramental organization is approved. A patient needs a practitioner to certify a qualifying condition before OCR will issue a card, and the card guide and patient FAQs set out the steps. The USVI medical cannabis practitioner directory lists who can certify.

The commercial build-out is the larger half. Ten conditional dispensary licenses are in hand across St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, five, three, and two in that order. Those counters are built to sell to anyone 21 or over with no card required. Fourteen conditional cultivation licenses were awarded in the first cultivation round.

The local sequence is unchanged

None of this moves a date on the ground.

A Tier 1 grower on St. Croix holds the territory’s first commercial cultivation Certificate to Operate, issued September 24. The St. Croix testing laboratory is operational and waiting on plants. Product has to clear the testing standards before it can be sold, and dispensaries still need facility sign-off. The second application round closed September 15 with 26 applications, 16 of them for licenses and 10 for micro-cultivation permits. Moorehead has held to a fall 2026 target for first regulated sales since February.

Everyone hired at this month’s career expo still needs Responsible Vendor Training and a cannabis business agent ID card before starting. Moorehead told the board the next training round is expected the third week of November.

What to watch

• Wednesday, October 21. DEA’s brief on whether rescheduling opponents get reopened discovery and testimony, capped at 10 pages. It is a filing deadline, not a restart date. On October 14, Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius kept the September 29 stay of the rescheduling hearing in place, with no end date.
• Thursday, October 22. The Cannabis Advisory Board’s next meeting, with a vote on the full intoxicating hemp rules expected. The board last amended the draft rules on September 24 without adopting them, and the CBD and hemp guide tracks where that leaves retailers.
• Whether OCR says how it reads the definition. A territorial licensee seeking expedited federal registration would need that answer first.
• The end of the calendar year. HHS told GAO in September that FDA and the National Institutes of Health have been working since late 2023 on a replacement agreement governing how FDA coordinates with the National Institute on Drug Abuse on scheduling evaluations, and hope “to finalize it within the current calendar year.” GAO’s recommendation to update it was one of three in the September 23 report that paused the marijuana hearing.