The Royal Virgins Islands Police Force (RVIPF) confirmed the discovery while providing responses to a BVI News inquiry yesterday, February 7.

“Officers of the Virgin Gorda Policing District uprooted and seized just over 130 marijuana plants ranging in size from 3.5 feet to 4.5 feet from an area near Gorda Peak on Virgin Gorda,” the RVIPF Information Unit told our news centre.

The police said no arrests have been made to date. It is not clear how the police came to discovered the plants.

The cultivation of cannabis is illegal in the BVI but the government is making provisions to legalise farming the plant for medicinal purposes.

Just weeks ago, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley indicated that his government has made headway with the United Kingdom as it relates to developing a medical marijuana industry in the British Virgin Islands.

“We have found a way forward on this aspect of medicinal cannabis and we are proceeding to put the necessary regimes in place for approvals. I’m grateful to the UK government for their support in this area,” he said at a recent press conference.

Based on indications from Dr Natalio Wheatley, the BVI may not need to rely on the Cannabis Licensing Act — the legislation that sets the framework for the establishment of a local medical marijuana industry — to get things started. The Act has been wrapped up in UK red tape for almost three years now.