A St. Thomas business that sold hemp products has accused local law enforcement and regulatory agencies of violating both U.S. Virgin Islands and federal law after they seized more than $18,000 in an April 2025 raid, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court this week.
Homegrown Bar and Grill named the Virgin Islands government, V.I. Attorney General Gordon Rhea, Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner H. Nathalie Hodge and Cannabis Regulation Office Director Joanne Moorehead in its complaint, which stated that the hemp products were legal at the time they were seized and that the government failed to compensate the business for its loss.
The 36th Legislature approved a measure last month making the sale of such products illegal without a license from Cannabis Regulation, and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. signed the bill into law on Jan. 23.
Robert Leycock, an attorney representing Homegrown, said in a statement to media outlets that hemp-derived products like the ones authorities confiscated had been legal under federal law since 2018 and that the territory’s own hemp retail program issued licenses to qualified sellers.
“Homegrown Bar and Grill did everything right. They applied for a license. They got one. They bought products from licensed wholesalers. They opened their doors. The government that licensed them then raided them,” he wrote. “Nine months before it had any law on the books that could arguably justify what it did.”
Leycock also took aim at a section of the recent law, which requires hemp retailers to surrender their products to the Health Department for storage until the OCR develops regulations and begins issuing licenses, “again without any provision for just compensation, and without any mechanism to compensate retailers for the destruction of their inventory and their reasonable investment-backed expectations.”
