Vineyard and Nantucket pot shops on the ropes

Because transporting cannabis over federal waters or through states where it's illegal could lead to prosecution, cannabis shops on Martha's Vineyard are running out of products. These cannabis plants are grown at a farm in Columbia County, New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Members of the state Cannabis Control Commission said that the agency will act to preserve the cannabis industry on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in the face of a declining supply of cannabis products on the islands and dispensary shutdowns that could leave the Vineyard with no retail marijuana outlets as soon as this summer.

The commission heard desperate pleas for action from medical marijuana patients and others during a public hearing it held on Thursday on Martha’s Vineyard.

The problems facing the cannabis industry on the islands stem from the unusual status of marijuana — legal under state law but still illegal under federal statutes. That has prompted dispensaries on the Vineyard and Nantucket to source all their marijuana products from cultivators on the islands — something they say has become increasingly difficult and costly — because transporting cannabis over federal waters could lead to prosecution.

The June 6 hearing came on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the state cannabis commission by two dispensaries — Island Time on Martha’s Vineyard and Green Lady on Nantucket – alleging that the state agency is improperly enforcing a federal prohibition on transporting cannabis over state and federal waters.

According to the lawsuit, despite laws banning marijuana from federal waters, there are routes to the islands that are under state jurisdiction and there is no state law or regulation that prohibits the transport of cannabis over those routes. The suit contends that the state cannabis commission is enforcing an “unwritten, unauthorized, and arbitrary policy” by punishing operators for transporting cannabis from the mainland to the islands using the federal controlled substance law.

Not being able to transport cannabis from the mainland, say cannabis businesses on the islands, has put them in dire fiscal straits. They say the requirement to have all cannabis on the islands grown, tested, sold, and consumed there has made their cannabis products more expensive and made dispensaries less profitable than if they were able to bring in products from the mainland.

As a result of this economic reality, Island Time shuttered its doors on May 14. The leadership at Fine Fettle, the only grower in the Vineyard, said that they have struggled to make their business viable and will be forced to close their dispensaries by August or September.

“We are at a crossroads and we need your immediate attention,” said Geoff Rose, the CEO of Island Time, at the hearing. “I’ve worked hard to be part of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts. I’m now turning away patients and consumers, my friends and neighbors because I’m no longer able to source products.”

Rose was previously cited by the cannabis commission when he brought cannabis products onto Martha’s Vineyard by ferry. The lawsuit said that the commission ruled that marijuana products can not be transported from the mainland to Vineyard or Nantucket, and it further sanctioned Rose because a ferry isn’t a vehicle approved by the commission to transport cannabis.

Medical marijuana patients, operators, and advocates who spoke at the hearing emphasized the urgency of the situation and implored the commissioners to rewrite regulations to authorize transporting cannabis over state waters.

“I am a current medical [marijuana] patient on this island and the idea that I would have to commit a crime to bring my medicine home is baffling to me,” said Gabrielle Bisson-Corwin, a manager at Fine Fettle. “I have so many customers who get relief [from cannabis]. These moments where we get to help these people – I really don’t want to see the island lose that opportunity. I don’t want any of the people here to lose that access, and selfishly I don’t want to lose my job.”

Commissioners expressed worry that in the absence of dispensaries, an illicit market might crop up.

“We heard from patients, we heard from advocates out here who are worried about patients,” Commissioner Bruce Stebbins said following the hearing. “I think there was some consensus that we’re also worried about the rise in the illicit market out here if there are no tested legal products available for sale on the island.”

In a public meeting last month, commissioners discussed an emergency order to allow cannabis businesses to transport cannabis by boat but they did not vote on it. The commissioners are set to discuss how they will approach this issue at their public meeting next Thursday.

The CCC has not been known for its speed in tackling issues, but Commissioner Kimberly Roy said that this one is different.

“This is a super priority for us because we don’t want to see the collapse of an industry on the Islands,” she said. “We’re literally talking about a time-sensitive issue where there will be no supply chain at all, and you have 230-odd medical patients that will have no access to safely regulated, tested products.”

All options, including new regulations around transporting cannabis by boat, are on the table, according to Roy.

“We’re hopeful we can do it on the regulatory side,” Roy said following the hearing. “If we can provide some sort of immediate relief to help patients and to help consumers, then long-term we need to examine our regulations to see what we can do.”

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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