Martha’s Vineyard is about to run out of pot

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) – An 81-year-old Martha’s Vineyard woman went to the Island Time dispensary last week to pick up her usual order of pot. But owner Geoff Rose had to tell him the cupboard was empty – it had been forced to temporarily close three weeks earlier after selling out of every last bud and candy.

Unless something changes, the only other cannabis dispensary on the island will sell out all of its remaining inventory no later than September, and Martha’s Vineyard will run out of pot completely, affecting more than 230 registered medical users and thousands of people. other recreational users.

The problem comes down to location. Even though Massachusetts voters chose to legalize marijuana More than seven years ago, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission took the position that transporting marijuana across the ocean — whether by boat or plane — risked violating federal laws. This is despite a counterargument that there are routes to Martha’s Vineyard that remain entirely within the state’s territorial waters.

That conundrum 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 commissioners visited Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday to hear directly from affected residents.

The tension between conflicting state and federal regulations has played out across the country as states have legalized pot. California lawfor example, expressly authorizes the transportation of cannabis to stores on Catalina Island, while Hawaii last year solved its own difficulties transporting medical marijuana between the islands by changing a law to allow it.

Federal authorities have also changed their position. The Department of Justice last month Moved to reclassify Marijuana is a less dangerous drug, although it is still not legal for recreational use.

For several years, sellers on Martha’s Vineyard and the neighboring island of Nantucket thought they had a solution. They grew and tested their own pot, eliminating the need to import anything from across the water.

But Fine Fettle, a Connecticut-based company that was the sole commercial grower on Martha’s Vineyard and also runs the island’s other dispensary, told Rose last year that it planned to stop growing of pot on Martha’s Vineyard and that it would close its store when its existing supplies were exhausted. exhausted.

Benjamin Zachs, who runs Fine Fettle’s Massachusetts operations, said that when the business opened on Martha’s Vineyard, he knew it was illegal to transport marijuana on federal waterways.

“Frankly, when this first started, we thought it was a good thing for business,” Zachs said. “A conquered market. »

But over time, pot became cheaper with more varied options on the Massachusetts mainland, while the costs of employing testers on the island increased, making it uneconomic to continue such a pot operation. niche, Zachs said. He added that many people bring their own supplies on the ferry.

But for island residents, taking the ferry to buy pot can be expensive and time-consuming. There is no dispensary in Woods Hole, where the ferry lands, so they either have to take an Uber from there or bring a car, and space for vehicles is in high demand this summer. This leaves medical users like Sally Rizzo wondering how they will be able to access marijuana. She finds the medication helps with her back problems and insomnia.

“The advantage of getting it at a dispensary is you can tell them specifically what you’re looking for, know the milligrams, know the potency and what’s in it,” said Rizzo, who submitted an affidavit to the support of The Trial of Rose.

Rose, 77, has lived on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 20 years and opened her Island Time store three years ago. For now, he’s keeping his core staff of five on payroll. The dispensary’s green logo looks like a hippie version of the famous Starbucks emblem, with a relaxed woman smelling a flower beneath the words “Stop and Smell the Flower.” But Rose is anything but relaxed these days.

“I’m about to go bankrupt,” he said. “While I recognize the commission’s efforts to resolve the issue, I truly felt that the only way to obtain immediate relief was to take legal action. I wasn’t going to sit on the sides. I had something to do.”

Rose was joined in his lawsuit by Nantucket’s Green Lady dispensary, which for now continues to have its own local supply but also faces the same high costs of on-site testing.

In the lawsuit, Rose explains how he told the commission in November that his business was facing an existential crisis because Fine Fettle would no longer grow pot. In March, he took a chance by buying pot on the mainland and shipping it by ferry.

But the commission ordered Rose to stop selling the product he had shipped, effectively placing him on administrative hold. The commission eventually released the marijuana a few weeks later, but told Rose it couldn’t ship any more. In his complaint, Rose complains about the commission’s “arbitrary, unreasonable, and inconsistent policy against transportation in state territorial waters.”

Island Time is represented by Vicente, a company specializing in cannabis business. He agreed to postpone an emergency injunction against the commission until June 12, after the commission announced it would begin settlement discussions.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to reach a resolution, but if we cannot, we will be prepared to present our arguments in court,” said Adam Fine, Vicente’s attorney.

Until last week, the commission maintained that it would not comment on pending litigation, saying only that there were no special accommodations to allow transportation of marijuana from the mainland to the islands. But when commissioners visited Martha’s Vineyard, they assured residents they were all on the same page.

“This is obviously a top priority for us because we don’t want to see the collapse of an industry on the islands,” Commissioner Kimberly Roy said.

She said no one could have noticed there would be such a supply chain problem and they wanted to fix it.

“It’s a funny juxtaposition,” she said. “The entire industry is federally illegal. But that is also evolving. We’re just trying to stay responsive and agile.