In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the V.I. Cannabis Advisory Board accepted the proposed amendments for Act 8680 received back from the Legislature.
The 66-pages of rules and regulations define everything from the structure of the board to who can distribute cannabis and the requirements.
Committee member Richard T. Evangelista said that the proposed amendments were officially submitted on Jan. 19 to the office of the president.
“Since then, we have worked with the office of Donna Frett-Gregory who has ownership of a lot of those proposed amendments. We expect to see some movement in the months to come, hopefully days to come,” said Evangelista.
Other updates included potentially expecting a new board member. Also, practitioners are now eligible to register online. Executive Director of the Office of Cannabis Regulations, Hannah Carty, provided a step-by-step guide on how practitioners can register.
There is a cost to register, and the OCR website and application for growers is “forthcoming,” Carty said.
“It is an opportunity for practitioners to get themselves prepared to accept patients and protect our sacramental users and medicinal patients for the right given by the cannabis use act,” Carty said.
Board member Positive Nelson asked, “Is there any anticipation as to what timeline of actual cultivation or dispensary license will be granted? I think we should give them some projection.”
Carty responded, “Just based on actual time to do things, I am not anticipating till the end of 2024. Like the application period, the review period, getting some of the contractors in place before that happens. I do anticipate putting some kind of flexible timeline on our website.”
On Feb. 15, the OCR will meet with medicinal patients, and on Feb. 29, sacramental users for their “fireside chat series.” You can find the link to the series here.
There will also be a rules and regulations town hall to obtain feedback from the public, which is anticipated to take place in the next month. The board will meet again on April 16.
Executive Director Hannah Carty and board members Nicole A. Craigwell-Syms, Catherine A. Kean, Positive Nelson, Gary Jett, Christopher Jones, Positive Nelson, and Richard T. Evangelista attended Tuesday’s meeting.
