Cannabis Advisory Board met without a quorum on August 20, and OCR reported the patient registry down to 42

As of August 22, 2026. The Virgin Islands Cannabis Advisory Board met on Thursday, August 20, without a quorum and could not conduct official business. Members heard a status report anyway. Joanne Moorehead, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Regulation, reported 42 active medical cannabis patients in the territory, a count that includes new registrations and renewals and reflects cardholders who chose not to renew, according to the St. Thomas Source.

The registry stood at 45 on May 14, the last time OCR gave the board a public patient count. Over three months, the figure fell by three. The steps for joining the registry are in the guide to getting a USVI medical cannabis card.

Sacramental registration

One sacramental organization, representing about 20 people, has been approved. A second application is pending. In June 2025 the board heard that two sacramental organizations had applied for collective cultivation permits on St. Thomas, together representing roughly 40 people who would register as members once their organizations cleared review.

Timelines from conditional approval to open doors

Moorehead told the board that businesses holding conditional approvals are moving at different speeds. Some cultivators and dispensaries could be ready within three to six months. Others are estimated at nine months or more. A couple of dispensaries are ready now and waiting on product, the same constraint OCR described at its August 7 budget hearing: retail sales cannot begin until a testing laboratory is operating.

OCR’s compliance team is in frequent contact with licensees and is tracking what is holding individual businesses back.

Two open dispensary slots on St. Thomas

Moorehead said OCR is considering opening more dispensary applications on St. Thomas. The Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act allows up to seven dispensary licenses on the island. OCR filled five with conditional awards published January 16, 2026, leaving two.

That would change the window now open. The second-round application period that opened July 16 takes dispensary applications on St. Croix only. Cultivation is open on all three islands, with manufacturing and research and development open for the first time. The deadline is September 15.

What to watch

• Whether OCR opens St. Thomas dispensary applications before the September 15 deadline or holds them for a later round.
• Whether the next board meeting seats a quorum. The next meeting is proposed for September 24 at 2 p.m., per the St. Thomas Source report of the August 20 session, and OCR had posted no notice of that date on its own site as of August 22. The last publicly confirmed quorum was the May 14 vote on laboratory testing standards. A June 25 session produced no public readout, and OCR has not said whether it was quorate.
• The testing laboratory. Stakeholders have told OCR the facility could be ready by October, and no dispensary can sell until it is operating.