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The U.S. Virgin Islands just started growing its first legal cannabis crop
A St. Croix cultivator received the territory's first Certificate to Operate, more than three years after its cannabis law was signed.
By The Crushed Desk · 3d ago · 3 min read
Photo: The Marijuana Herald
The U.S. Virgin Islands issued its first-ever Certificate to Operate to a commercial cannabis cultivator this week, clearing a Tier 1 grower on St. Croix to start cultivation legally for the first time in territory history.
"The official cultivation has truly, truly begun," said Joanne Moorehead, executive director of the territory's Office of Cannabis Regulation — a milestone more than three years after the Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act was signed into law in January 2023.
A temporary testing lab on St. Croix is now running and waiting on its first plant samples, and regulators say St. Thomas cultivators are moving through certification as well. St. Croix alone is authorized for up to 15 commercial cultivation licenses under a merit-based review process.
Retail is still a ways off — no dispensary licenses have opened yet, and regulators are only projecting stores sometime in 2026 — so this is a supply-chain milestone, not a launch date. For anyone tracking new U.S. markets, it's the clearest sign yet that the territory's program is moving from paper to plant.
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