Cannabis To Be Shipped To Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard To Avert Shortage

MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA – Concerns of a summer shortage of marijuana on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands have been put to rest following an administrative order last Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) issued the order allowing marijuana to be shipped to the islands of Cape Cod for the first time.

Voters in Massachusetts approved recreational marijuana in 2016, but until now the commission did not allow weed to be transported to those islands out of concern that shipments across the ocean would violate federal laws.

That meant dispensaries on the islands had to either grow their own cannabis, or buy it from another cultivator on their island, rather than the mainland. The threat of shortages became more acute with the summer tourist season approaching and Martha’s Vineyard’s only grower, Fine Fettle in West Tisbury, planning to close later this year.

Cannabis stores on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket filed a lawsuit against the CCC last month to allow wholesale marijuana delivery to the islands for resale to consumers.

The owners of Island Time and Nantucket-based Green Lady Dispensary sought an allowance for interisland cannabis transportation via boat. Inventory shortages had forced Island Time to close twice since March.

“What that administrative order does is it permits the transportation of cannabis in territorial waters, so there’s a certain body of water where it will be permitted,” CCC Acting Chair Ava Callender Concepcion said Thursday after the group’s meeting, adding that the order would effectively bring the lawsuit to an end.

Callender Concepcion said CCC had reached out to various federal agencies to address the legality of transporting marijuana over water within the state and hadn’t received a direct response.

“So, we operated from the information that we were able to gather and, understanding the limited supply, the needs of consumers and patients on the island.”

The order stipulates that operators can ship recreational and medical product on a “seaworthy vessel” through waters controlled by the state of Massachusetts.

There are over 230 registered medical users and thousands more recreational ones on Martha’s Vineyard. While there are 20,000 year-round residents, the population grows to more than 100,000 in the summer.

“We never want to be putting consumers and patients in a place where they don’t have access to medicine, they don’t have access to cannabis,” Concepcion said. “We also don’t want to see (businesses) close their doors.”

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