A stalled marijuana regulation within the U.S. Virgin Islands acquired a giant push Tuesday after an advisory board permitted an inventory of proposed guidelines and laws that may govern the leisure use of hashish within the territory.
The board’s vote represented a key step towards implementing a regulation permitted greater than a yr in the past to permit the leisure use on the three islands. A 30-day public remark interval on the proposed laws and guidelines is scheduled to start out quickly.
“We’ve been ready a really very long time for this,” Dr. Catherine Kean, the advisory board’s chairperson, mentioned.
The board is also finalizing an inventory of individuals it thinks are certified to have their felony information expunged of straightforward hashish possession, as licensed by the regulation. The record will likely be shared with legislators, the island’s Supreme Court docket and others in upcoming weeks, board member Optimistic Nelson mentioned.
Some 300 folks within the U.S. Virgin Islands have been convicted of straightforward marijuana possession prior to now 20 years.
The board is also finishing a registration system, with individuals who use hashish for medicinal or sacramental functions anticipated to have entry to it by April, in accordance with Hannah Carty, the board’s government director.
Each two years, spiritual and religion organizations must pay $200 to register, and medical practitioners will likely be charged $250, officers mentioned.
Companies will be capable of register by June or July, Carty mentioned, including that the federal government simply accomplished a request-for-proposal course of for seed-to-sale operations. Nevertheless, cultivation and manufacturing licenses probably is not going to be granted earlier than the top of the yr, she mentioned.
“A variety of issues aren’t inside our management,” Carty famous. Whereas the U.S. territory permitted marijuana for medicinal use in 2019, the leisure use that was legalized in January 2023 stalled for a number of causes, together with wording of the invoice and the hashish advisory board missing adequate members for a quorum.
The regulation permits adults ages 21 and older to own as much as 2 ounces of marijuana, a half-ounce of hashish focus and 1 ounce of merchandise reminiscent of edibles for leisure, sacramental and different makes use of.
Medical marijuana sufferers are allowed to own as much as 4 ounces of hashish, 1 ounce of focus and a pair of ounces of merchandise.
A minimal 18% tax will apply to all dispensary gross sales, though medical marijuana sufferers are exempt. Three-fourths of the tax income is anticipated to go to the overall fund. Of that quantity, 15% is earmarked for behavioral well being packages, 5% to handle homelessness and 5% for youth packages.
Nelson requested if an precise card for marijuana sufferers could be issued: “For the OGs. I used to be desirous about that,” he mentioned as the opposite board members smiled.
Carty mentioned sufferers would obtain digital IDs they will carry on their telephones or print out.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is the newest a part of the Caribbean to chill out marijuana legal guidelines. Antigua decriminalized marijuana use for most people, and Jamaica has decriminalized small quantities of pot.
In the meantime, the Bahamas has began debating a number of payments to legalize marijuana for medical and spiritual functions and decriminalize possession of small quantities.
The hashish advisory board members within the U.S. Virgin islands celebrated their progress.
“The practice is able to go away the station,” board member Richard Evangelista mentioned. “All passengers are on board.”
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