VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) — An 81-year-old woman on Martha’s Vineyard drove up to the Island Time dispensary last week seeking her usual order of pot. But owner Geoff Rose had to tell her the cupboard was bare — he’d been forced to temporarily close three weeks earlier after selling every last bud and gummy.
Unless something changes, the island’s only other cannabis dispensary will sell all its remaining supplies by September at the latest, and Martha’s Vineyard will run out of pot entirely, affecting more than 230 registered medical users and thousands more recreational ones.
The problem boils down to location. Although Massachusetts voters opted to legalize marijuana more than seven years ago, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission has taken the position that transporting pot across the ocean — whether by boat or plane — risks running afoul of federal laws. That’s despite a counterargument that there are routes to Martha’s Vineyard that remain entirely within state territorial waters.
READ MORE: How marijuana’s reclassification could change U.S. drug policy
The conundrum led Rose to file a lawsuit last month against the commission, which now says that finding a solution to the island’s pot problem has become a top priority.
