OCR posts draft intoxicating hemp rules for public comment, adding manufacturer, distributor, and transporter permits

As of August 10, 2026. The Office of Cannabis Regulation has published a discussion draft of the intoxicating hemp regulations and opened it for public comment. The 30-page document is the first rule text the territory has produced under Act 9072 since the law was signed on January 23, 2026.

Comments can be filed through a form on OCR’s comment page or by email to info.ocr@ocr.vi.gov with the subject line “Intoxicating Hemp Rules & Regulations Draft Comments.” The comment page states a 30-day period and prints no closing date. Ganjactivist and Cannabis Business Times report a September 15 deadline, the same day the second-round license application window closes. OCR has not confirmed that date in writing.

The draft carries a notice on its cover and a header on every page: “This Discussion Draft is provided solely for review, discussion, and consideration by the Cannabis Advisory Board. It has not been adopted by the Cannabis Advisory Board, approved by the Governor, or promulgated as law.” It cites Act 9072 “as amended by Act No. 9079” as its authority, a reference to the March amendment that replaced the law’s inventory provision.

Four ways to be licensed, not one

Act 9072 created a single new category, the Intoxicating Hemp/Artificially Derived Cannabinoid Retailer License. The draft rules build a supply chain around it.

A license or permit would be required for manufacturing, distribution, retail sale, and transport. Alongside the retailer license, the draft adds three permits that did not previously exist: Manufacturer, Distributor, and Transporter. One person may hold more than one, subject to conflict-of-interest limits. Licenses and permits would run one year and be renewable.

The per-island caps match the statute: no more than six retailer licenses in the District of St. Croix, six in the District of St. Thomas, and two in the District of St. John. The draft then says the cap “does not apply to Manufacturer, Distributor, or Transporter Permits, or to Authorized Laboratories.” The ceiling written into Act 9072 applies only to storefronts.

The location rules carry forward: no retailer license for a gas station, convenience store, or grocery store, and no licensed premises within 250 feet of a school or church.

The draft sets no fees. It says only that the office “shall publish and maintain a schedule of application, issuance, renewal, modification, and any other applicable fees.” The $15,000 retailer license fee reported since January comes from Act 9072 itself, not from these rules, and no manufacturer, distributor, or transporter fee appears anywhere in the document.

Hemp products inside dispensaries

The provision with the most commercial weight lets regulated cannabinoid products “be sold at the Licensed Premises of a Dispensary licensed under the Cannabis Use Act.” The conditions are physical separation of inventory, separate inventory tracking and sales records, and compliance with the rules.

A dispensary licensed under the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act would not need a standalone hemp storefront to carry these products. It would need a retailer license and a separate shelf.

What a sale would look like

• Face to face only. Every consumer sale would happen at a licensed premises with age verification. Internet, telephone, mail-order, and app-based sales without an in-person handoff are prohibited, as are delivery to consumers, vending machines, and self-checkout.
• Nothing on display. No product displays visible from outside the premises and no self-service displays. Customers go through an employee.
• Twenty-one and over. No sales to anyone under 21.
• Tested, with paperwork. No licensee may receive, transport, hold, distribute, or sell product without a valid Certificate of Analysis from an authorized laboratory.
• Dose limits. A cap of 10 milligrams of total THC per serving and 100 milligrams per package. Multi-serving packages have to let individual servings be identified and separated.
• Child-resistant packaging, with multi-serving packages required to be re-sealable in a child-resistant way.

Penalties follow the statute: a $2,500 civil penalty for a first violation and at least $5,000 for a second within 12 months.

The rules would take effect once the Governor approves them and they are formally published. The draft ends with the Lieutenant Governor’s certification block, unsigned.

Where this sits against the calendar

The Cannabis Advisory Board reviewed a first draft on July 30, 98 days past the April 23 deadline that Executive Director Joanne Moorehead described at the February 12 board meeting as the end of the agency’s 90-day rulemaking window. Board Chair Dr. Catherine Kean asked members to file remaining comments within 24 to 48 hours so the draft could move to public comment, per the St. John Source. The published draft is the result.

The prohibition stays in force while comment runs. No intoxicating hemp retailer license has been issued, and none can be until the board adopts a rule and the Governor approves it.

What to watch

• The comment deadline. OCR’s page states a 30-day period without a closing date, and trade coverage reports September 15. Anyone planning to comment should file well ahead of that date.
• A fee schedule for the three new permits. The rules defer every fee to a document that does not yet exist.
• Whether the board votes to adopt at its next meeting, and whether OCR posts an agenda beforehand.
• Whether any of the ten conditional dispensary licensees applies for a retailer license to sell hemp products alongside cannabis.