Could Martha’s Vineyard run out of Weed?
Vineyard and Nantucket Cannabis Businesses Sue Over Strict Shipping Rules.
Two cannabis businesses on the Vineyard and Nantucket warn that strict shipping rules could crimp supply on the islands. They’re suing to change them.
Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are at the risk of running low on cannabis this summer, amid a furious debate over whether marijuana can be shipped over the Atlantic Ocean.
In a last-ditch effort to keep the pot flowing, two dispensaries — Island Time in Vineyard Haven and Green Lady on Nantucket — sued the Cannabis Control Commission Tuesday, alleging that the state regulatory body’s restrictions on shipping cannabis on boat or plane across state waters jeopardize their businesses.
The issue came to a head this month, after Island Time closed its doors on May 14, citing low stock, and Fine Fettle — the Vineyard’s lone cannabis growing facility and only source of new supply — announced plans to shutter by September.
Shops are being “starved to death” by the “Commission’s arbitrary, unreasonable, and inconsistent policy against transporting marijuana and marijuana products over any state’s territorial waters,” a memo filed alongside the complaint in Suffolk County Superior Court reads.
The battle has thrown the state into a scramble to figure out how to keep the supply of cannabis stable for year-round recreational users, 500-some medical patients, and an onslaught of visitors soon to arrive to the two destination islands.
Nicole Campbell, co-owner of Green Lady and a plaintiff in the suit, said the shipping challenges have unnecessarily forced the four dispensaries across the islands into financially precarious positions.
“People on the islands do not want to feel cut off from access to things that other people take for granted,” she said. “It’s putting an extra burden on us that does not need to exist.”
Their challenges highlight the convoluted economics of selling cannabis in the middle of the ocean.
Marijuana businesses already operate within a strict regulatory framework that can force razor-thin margins and low profits, even in densely populated Greater Boston. Those problems are only exacerbated on the Vineyard and Nantucket, where the costs of equipment and labor are especially high and demand is seasonal. Add in the complexities of shipping, and supply, too, can be an obstacle.
Island cannabis businesses have shared qualms about the shipping regulations with the CCC intermittently for years. Now, with dispensaries closing and some 200,000 visitors projected to descend in the next few months, the urgency of the matter is weighing on regulators.
In May, cannabis commissioners considered voting on an emergency order to allow transportation by boat but ultimately did not do so. They plan to hold a hearing on Martha’s Vineyard within the next month.
The CCC “is aware of the unique operational difficulties faced by licensees” on the islands, said spokesperson Tara Smith in a statement, and will discuss additional accommodations soon.
While Massachusetts law spells out rules for ground transportation of cannabis, it is decidedly ambiguous about the limitations of shipping by sea or plane. Since marijuana remains illegal on a national level, federal law prohibits moving cannabis through US waters. It is technically possible to get to the Vineyard and Nantucket through Massachusetts waters, but operators have stayed away from shipping in boats to avoid risking any federal scrutiny.
The Coast Guard reiterated in an email to the Globe that in US waters, “the transportation of a significant amount of a controlled substance, regardless of its form, is illegal.”
As a result, the dispensaries located on the Vineyard and Nantucket have long operated in isolation, growing and testing their own cannabis or sourcing it from another company on the same island.
Adam Fine, a cannabis attorney with Vicente LLP representing the two operators in the lawsuit, argued that Island Haven and Green Lady should be permitted to ship marijuana over water under state law — if for no other reason than to level the playing field with mainland operators, who regularly transport marijuana on federal highways.
He added that Massachusetts laws do not explicitly prohibit waterway shipments and that other states, including Hawaii, New York, and Maine, have allowed cannabis shipments through state waters with certain limitations.
“Island businesses have been treated differently from the outset. It’s a much more challenging environment,” Fine said. “Staying in state [territorial waters] is what the statute allows for. To regulate beyond that exceeds the state’s authority.”
Without a rule change here, Island Time owner Geoff Rose said his dispensary will likely not survive.
In November, when Rose learned that Fine Fettle would stop growing cannabis, he began urging regulators to allow shipments from the mainland over state waters, according to the lawsuit.
Frustrated with the slow progress, Rose in March partnered with an off-island supplier who brought cannabis over on a Steamship Authority ferry. But he was quickly caught by regulators. The CCC then forbade him to sell any of the product, after which he closed up shop indefinitely.
“This is an emergency situation for me,” Rose said. “I’m out of product, and I closed my doors. Even though I acknowledge the Commission’s effort to address the supply chain issue now, I am at a critical juncture.”
Steamship Authority spokesperson Sean Driscoll would not confirm whether the organization had knowledge of Island Time’s shipment and deferred further comment to the US Coast Guard. The Drug Enforcement Agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Jeremiah MacKinnon, president of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, now fears what the loss of Island Time will mean for medical consumers on the Vineyard, who rely on cannabis to ease pain from chronic conditions and other illnesses.
“We became complacent with the fact that there is at least one on the island,” he said. “But the house of cards can collapse, and the barriers to entry are holding back access.”
Campbell of Green Lady in Nantucket added that the islands are in danger of losing more cannabis operators if regulations are not altered.
Her business grows its cannabis on the island, as required under state law, but Campbell worries about what might happen should her crop fail at some point — and about the broader complexities of doing this business roughly 30 miles out at sea.
The Green Lady has a second location in Newton, but because of the shipping regulations, she cannot sell her Nantucket-grown cannabis there. Nor can she even send it to the mainland for testing. Without an independent testing facility on the island, that means Campbell has to test and treat her marijuana in-house, often an expensive endeavor.
