The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) has formally signed a pair of payments to legalize marijuana and facilitate hashish expungements within the territory, making it the newest jurisdiction within the nation to finish prohibition.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. (D) signed the laws, sponsored by Sen. Janelle Sarauw (I), simply earlier than a 10-day deadline for motion. He additionally took the chance to difficulty a proclamation permitting folks to petition for pardons for prior hashish possession convictions.
“From the start of the Bryan-Roach Administration, we’ve got labored in the direction of the legalization of the grownup use of hashish, and at present, with the exhausting work of the members of the thirty fourth Legislature and prior Legislatures and the efforts of my staff, we’re lastly right here and eventually signing into regulation the Virgin Islands Hashish Use Act,” the governor, who launched his personal legalization proposal in 2019, mentioned.
Whereas Bryan thanked a number of lawmakers for his or her work on the problem at a signing ceremony on Wednesday, the sponsor of the reform laws was notably absent and went unacknowledged. It’s no secret that there’s been stress between the 2, with the governor publicly criticizing the senator at factors over what he described as pointless delays in introducing the reform measure.
“This Act incorporates key points of my authentic proposal, equivalent to one streamlined regulatory scheme for each medicinal and grownup use, enforcement powers for the Workplace of Hashish Regulation, entrepreneurship and job alternatives for Virgin Islands residents, and the creation of a income stream to assist fund vital Authorities initiatives and operations,” Bryan said.
Sarauw instructed Marijuana Second in an interview on Tuesday that it was crucial that the laws wasn’t rushed, as she didn’t need to see a repeat of what she’s described as a poor rollout of the medical hashish regulation that was enacted early in Bryan’s administration. Her laws serves a twin function to that finish: legalizing marijuana for grownup use whereas substituting the medical hashish regulation.
The senator, who was the nominee for lieutenant governor on a ticket opposing Bryan final yr, was a part of a delegation of USVI lawmakers who visited Colorado final yr to be taught concerning the state’s expertise as one of many first to legalize leisure hashish.
“By touring to Denver and assembly and talking with people concerned in all points of the business from regulators, to regulation enforcement officers, to cultivators, producers and dispensary homeowners, it’s my hope that the people concerned with the roll-out of this business have discovered finest practices and what to keep away from as we work to create this business within the Virgin Islands,” the governor said on Wednesday.
“We’re bringing the alternatives to you, however you need to additionally do your half to grab these alternatives. It’s my objective to verify many people who’ve been negatively impacted by the criminalization of hashish are afforded each alternative to take part on this new and authorized hashish business.”
The pardon proclamation that the governor individually issued on Wednesday will empower folks with marijuana possession convictions to hunt reduction via the Virgin Islands Division of Justice.
“The Bryan-Roach administration helps the reform of Hashish coverage and the restorative justice results that go hand-in-hand with that reform,” Bryan mentioned. “In the present day, I proclaim that every one legal convictions for the easy possession of marijuana below the Virgin Islands Code are totally and fully pardoned. My workplace estimates that roughly 300 people have been convicted of the easy possession of marijuana within the final 20 years.”
This invoice signing additionally comes months after the governor included hashish legalization income in a finances proposal that he despatched to lawmakers and indicated that he may convene a particular session to enact the coverage change.
Listed here are a number of the most important provisions of the USVI legalization law:
Adults over the age of 21 can possess as much as two ounces of marijuana, fourteen grams of hashish concentres and one ounce of hashish merchandise equivalent to edibles, ointments and tinctures.
The laws will create an Workplace of Hashish Regulation (OCR), tasked with issuing marijuana enterprise licenses, overseeing the business and setting guidelines on points like promoting, packaging and labeling.
There can be a number of license and allow varieties, together with for hashish producers, retailers, cultivators, micro-cultivators, testing laboratories and on-site consumption entities.
There can be caps on what number of licenses OCR might grant for every of the territory’s most important islands. Regulators can difficulty extra after January 1, 2025 in the event that they conduct a research demonstrating that the growth is required to satisfy client demand.
People who use marijuana for sacramental functions can apply for their very own cultivation permits.
There can be a tax of a minimum of 18 % on marijuana bought from dispensaries, however that won’t apply to medical hashish. The invoice additionally lays out licensing charges and requires a 50 cent per gram tax on hashish cultivators who promote marijuana to different licensees.
Income can be break up amongst packages to handle behavioral well being, homelessness and youth recreation, in addition to administration of the hashish program and the territory’s common fund.
There can be a track-and-trace program for hashish merchandise.
There are additionally a number of fairness elements within the legalization invoice, together with prioritized utility scoring for minority, girls and service-injured entrepreneurs.
There can be a 100 milligram THC cap on edibles, and every serving can include as much as 10 milligrams.
Moreover, there are residency necessities for marijuana enterprise possession.
There are packaging and labeling restrictions, with the invoice stipulating that labels should embody well being warnings and be designed in a means that doesn’t attraction to folks below 21.
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The complementary expungements legislation that the governor signed was amended forward of passage and now offers for automated reduction from the courts for folks with prior convictions involving as much as two ounces of marijuana. As launched, the laws would have required folks to petition the courts.
Bryan, who has additionally talked about marijuana as a safer different to opioids for ache therapy, pressured in Could that it’s “been three years now shifting” the problem, and so lawmakers have to “get it via the legislature so we are able to get some cash going.”
He signed a medical hashish legalization invoice into regulation in 2019.
There was a listening to on the governor’s adult-use legalization proposal in 2020, with a number of authorities businesses testifying in favor of the reform and outlining how a regulated hashish market might assist the territory, particularly given its financial wants.
Bryan has additionally emphasised the necessity to legalize, tax and regulate hashish to generate income amid the financial downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
USVI isn’t the primary U.S. territory to enact the reform. The governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) signed a invoice to finish prohibition in 2018. The next yr, the governor of Guam signed legalization into regulation.
Picture courtesy of Max Pixel.