An 81-year-old woman from Martha’s Vineyard pulled up to the Island Time dispensary last week looking for her regular weed order. But owner Jeff Rose had to tell her the cupboard was bare – he was forced to temporarily close three weeks ago after selling out of every last bud and gummies.
Unless something changes, the island’s only cannabis dispensary will sell out all remaining stock by September at the latest, and Martha’s Vineyard will run out of marijuana entirely, affecting more than 230 registered cannabis users and thousands of other cannabis enthusiasts.
The problem comes down to location. Although Massachusetts voters chose to legalize marijuana more than seven years ago, the state Cannabis Control Commission took the position that transporting marijuana across the ocean—whether by boat or plane—risked violating federal laws. This is despite the counter-argument that there are routes to Martha’s Vineyard that remain entirely within state territorial waters.
The mystery led Rose to file a lawsuit last month against the commission, which now says finding a solution to the island’s marijuana problem has become a top priority. Three of the five commission members visited Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday to hear directly from affected residents.
Tensions between conflicting state and federal laws have spread across the country as states have legalized marijuana. California lawfor example, expressly permits the transport of cannabis to dispensaries on Catalina Island, while Hawaii last year dealt with its own difficulties in transporting medical marijuana between islands by amending the law to allow it.
Federal authorities are also changing their position. Ministry of Justice last month transferred to reclassification marijuana as a less dangerous drug, although not legal for recreational use.
For several years, sellers on Martha’s Vineyard and nearby Nantucket Island thought they had a solution. They grew and tested their own pot, eliminating the need to import it because of the water.
But Connecticut-based Fine Fettle, which was the only commercial grower on Martha’s Vineyard and also operated another dispensary on the island, told Rose last year that it plans to stop growing marijuana on Martha’s Vineyard and will close its store when stock becomes available. stocks. ended.
Benjamin Zaks, who runs Fine Fettle’s Massachusetts operations, said when the company opened on Martha’s Vineyard, it knew it was illegal to transport marijuana across federal waterways.
“Honestly, when this started, we thought it was good for business,” Zaks said. “Captured Market”
But over time, marijuana has become cheaper and the options on the Massachusetts mainland have become more diverse, and the cost of hiring testers on the island has risen, making it unprofitable to continue such a niche operation, Zaks said. He added that many people bring their own supplies on the ferry.
But for people living on the island, taking a ferry to buy marijuana can be costly and time-consuming. There is no pharmacy in Woods Hole, where the ferry docks, so they will have to either take an Uber from there or bring a car, and vehicle spaces are in high demand in the summer. This has medical consumers like Sally Rizzo wondering how they will access marijuana. She believes that the drug helps her get rid of back problems and insomnia.
“The best thing about getting it from a pharmacy is you can tell them specifically what you’re looking for and know the milligrams and know the potency and what’s in it,” said Rizzo, who submitted an affidavit to support for Lawsuit Rose.
Rose, 77, has lived on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 20 years and opened his store, Island Time, three years ago. He currently maintains a core staff of five. The dispensary’s green logo looks like a hippie version of the famous Starbucks logo: a relaxed woman smelling a flower, underneath the caption “Stop and Smell the Flower.” But Rose is anything but relaxed these days.
“I’m on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said. “While I acknowledge the commission’s efforts to resolve this issue, I truly felt that the only way to get immediate relief was to file a claim. I wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines. I had to do something.”
Rose is joined in the lawsuit by the Green Lady dispensary in Nantucket, which continues to maintain its own inventory for now but also faces the same high costs for on-site testing.
In the lawsuit, Rose recounts how he told the commission in November that his business faced an existential crisis because Fine Fettle would no longer grow marijuana. In March, he took a risk by buying marijuana on the mainland and transporting it by ferry.
But the commission ordered Rose to stop selling the product he shipped and placed him under administrative arrest. Eventually, after a few weeks, the commission allowed the marijuana, but told Rose he could no longer ship it. In her lawsuit, Rose complains about the commission’s “arbitrary, unreasonable and inconsistent policies regarding transportation through state waters.”
Island Time is represented by Vicente, a firm specializing in cannabis cases. He agreed to delay issuing an emergency injunction against the commission until June 12 after the commission said it would begin settlement discussions.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we can reach a settlement, but if we can’t, we will be prepared to make the case in court,” Vicente’s lawyer Adam Fine said.
Until last week, the commission said it would not comment on pending litigation other than to say there is no special facility to allow marijuana to be transported from the mainland to the islands. But when commissioners arrived on Martha’s Vineyard, they assured residents they were all on the same page.
“Obviously this is a super priority for us because we don’t want to see industry collapse on the islands,” said commission member Kimberly Roy.
She said no one could have foreseen that there would be a supply chain problem like this and they wanted to solve it.
“It’s a funny juxtaposition,” she said. “The entire industry is illegal at the federal level. But this is also evolving. We’re just trying to stay responsive and nimble.”