US Virgin Islands replace jail with a fine for an ounce of cannabis

The US Virgin Islands replaced the ordinary criminal penalty for possessing an ounce or less of cannabis with a $100 civil fine on 19 December 2014. Legislators overrode Governor John de Jongh’s veto to make the change law. An unpaid fine could still lead to a separate offence carrying jail time.^[1]

Legislators wanted police to focus on serious crime

The legislature had passed the measure in September. Its stated reasons included changing public attitudes and freeing criminal-justice resources for more serious offences, against the background of the territory’s high murder rate. The veto override brought the measure into law in December.^[1]

The same year, voters had backed consideration of medical-cannabis legislation. That referendum asked about licensing patients, caregivers, growers and distribution centres, and received 56.5% support. Its result later appeared in the preamble to the medical-cannabis bill.^[2]

A civil ticket still had consequences

Possession of an ounce or less became a civil infraction. Cannabis remained a controlled substance, and possessing more than an ounce could still bring up to a year in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.^[1]

The smaller-amount rule also contained an enforcement trap: failing to pay the fine within 180 days was a misdemeanour punishable by up to three months in jail. The reform reduced the ordinary penalty for a small possession case while retaining a route to imprisonment for nonpayment.^[1]

Cannabis smell remained a reason for police scrutiny

In a 2016 vehicle-stop case, Judge Robert Molloy considered whether decriminalisation prevented officers from stopping a vehicle after smelling cannabis. He concluded that a trained officer could still rely on a smell sufficiently connected to the vehicle.^[1]

But the driver, Victor Cannergeiter, won his challenge to the particular stop. Prosecutors had relied on a general statement about smelling marijuana without enough evidence about the officer’s experience or the smell’s connection to his truck. The court suppressed the evidence obtained after the stop.^[1]

Legal possession came in a later law

The 2023 Cannabis Use Act set an adult possession allowance of two ounces and higher limits for qualified patients. It also exempted conduct complying with its rules from the older controlled-drug chapter.^[3]

The US Virgin Islands profile follows those later possession rights and the separate process of establishing licensed sales.