Three cabinet commissioners take seats on the restructured Cannabis Advisory Board

December 18, 2024. Commissioners Louis Petersen, Justa Encarnacion, and Joseph Boschulte attended their first Cannabis Advisory Board meeting as voting members, completing the ex officio cabinet representation the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act now requires under the § 777(b)(1) composition rules rewritten by Act 8925. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Catherine Kean, with Executive Director Joanne Moorehead attending on behalf of the Office of Cannabis Regulation.

What the seating changes

Act 8925, signed October 31, 2024, replaced the prior Cannabis Advisory Board composition with a slate that gives four cabinet commissioners ex officio voting seats: Health, Agriculture, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, and Tourism. Commissioner Nathalie Hodge, who represents the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, had been serving on the Board throughout 2024 under the prior composition and was excused from the December 18 meeting. The three commissioners seated December 18 represent Agriculture (Petersen), Health (Encarnacion), and Tourism (Boschulte).

The non-cabinet seats remaining on the Board are a farmer recommended by the Local Food and Farm Council, two healthcare practitioners recommended by the Board of Medical Examiners, a business community member, a disability advocate, a University of the Virgin Islands representative, and an economist. The Office of Cannabis Regulation Director sits on the Board ex officio and non-voting.

A procedural clarification

At the same meeting the Board agreed to define a voting majority as the majority of voting members present, rather than a majority of the full voting membership, with a minimum consensus vote of four. This is the threshold every subsequent Board decision on fee schedules, applicant appeals, and rulemaking recommendations will be measured against.

What the Board covered on the same day

The Office of Cannabis Regulation reported that Enforcement Unit offer letters had been issued with start dates at the end of January and February 2025, and that the Office had hosted a public Lunch and Learn information session on December 16, 2024 with roughly 45 attendees. Executive Director Moorehead also reported that Commissioner Hodge and the Office of Cannabis Regulation had attended the Cannabis Regulators Association annual general meeting and the MJBiz annual conference in early December, and that knowledge from those sessions might produce further amendments to both the rules and the Cannabis Use Act itself.

What to watch

With the cabinet seats filled, the Cannabis Advisory Board reached quorum under the new composition for the first time, allowing every fee schedule, license approval, and rulemaking decision that follows to be made under the post-Act-8925 framework. The legality guide tracks the Board’s decisions as they accumulate.