During the monthly Cannabis Advisory Board meeting on Monday, the board unanimously approved V.I. Office of Cannabis Regulations (OCR) Executive Director Joanne Moorehead’s request to seek assistance from the V.I. Property and Procurement Department (DPP) for the cannabis approval application process. This decision came after a four-year process described by Board Chair Dr. Catherine Kean as a “big deal.
“The intention of Act 8680 is that there be a merit-based application process or a dispensing cultivation licensing. There’s a lot of language in the act 8680 that requires us to use the GVI RFP process ran through Property and Procurement for other licenses and certifications,” said Moorehead.
Moorehead said that the department would prefer to utilize the current technology for the business license application process, but this would require approximately a year to implement with the developers.
However, in order to kick-start the licensing process, Moorehead mentioned that they have been tasked to develop a temporary one-time procedure. “Still a merit-based process but will help us with some dispensing and cultivation licensing. Hopefully in 2025 we can be able to see cultivation and open dispensary doors,” said Moorehead.
Through DPP, Moorehead said that OCR will work to ensure their application requirements conform to the Virgin Islands government procurement requirements.
“We will be essentially initiating “request for qualifications,” or “RFQs” through that process in GVI Buy which is already setup to receive application packages. Using that process we can open the RFQ process with our specific requirements,” Moorehead said.
“It is not a true process that the Department of Property and Procurement would normally use because they have their process in system, but our governing legislation has very specific requirements. So, it is the unique process for this particular purpose, so it does require us to work closely with DPP to make sure we are conforming to our requirements as well as their requirements,” she continued.
Through DPP, the process needs to be opened for a minimum of 60 days per legislation, and then OCR will receive those applications from the GVI Buy website.
“We anticipate due to the amount of information for the packages to be large. Once the deadline has passed OCR will review the applications. OCR will conduct training of the evaluation committee in the use of a rubric that has been developed specifically for this application evaluation in ensuring the integrity of the process,” Moorehead said.
After completing this process, the first set of licenses will be issued to the selected applicants. There will be up to three dispensary licenses for St. Croix, seven cultivation licenses for St. Croix, three dispensary licenses for St. Thomas, seven cultivation licenses for St. Thomas, and one dispensary license and up to three cultivation licenses for St. John. At the end of 2025, the board will then reconvene again to discuss more licenses and renewing approved licenses.
When Cannabis Advisory Board Member Christopher Jones asked about a timeline for getting the information online with Property and Procurement, Moorehead said, “I can’t speak for DPP, but I am certainly hoping to plug our information into their system, which I hope won’t take too long. “
“At this space and time this is the fairest way of moving forward and most expeditious way of moving forward so that we can meet the demands of our patients. The public has been waiting for this for four years,” said Kean.
Other items on the agenda discussed were fee scheduling for tiers one to three. “The cultivation licenses are allowed for flowering plants from 51 to 1,000. “We’ve broken that number into three tiers and the associated application and licensing fee. A one-time fee every year,” said Moorehead. Tier one is at $2,500, tier two is at $5,000, and tier three is at $7,500.
Also discussed were the request for four positions in OCR enforcement, the approval of their fiscal year budget, and the approval of sacramental fees, which the board agreed upon: $500 for a minimum of 10 members.
Present for the meeting were Kean, Moorehead, Richard Evangelista, Nichole Simms, Positive Nelson, and Christoper Jones, a proxy for Dr. Gary Jett.
