Pot Crisis on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Sooner or later hard times come for everyone, even those whose breaths are routinely drawn from the crisp and clean ocean breezes of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Marijuana, both for medical as well as recreational use, has been legal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for several years, as it is in about half of the United States, but it inexplicably remains illegal in the overall US as detailed by federal law.  So far the feds are overlooking the states where it is legal, but issues arise when the product is moved from state to state, and particularly if it crosses federal property or states where it is not legal.  

Some states are not self-contained and have part of their territory in the form of islands that are out to sea and across waterways controlled by the federal government.  Can they transport their "legal" pot from their mainland territory to their island territory across federal routes and waterways?    Nothing seems to be settled yet, probably because the entire notion of something being legal in the states that is not legal in the country still appears to be mired in legal limbo.   But the different states are proceeding to tackle the issue in different manners, with most finding some way to justify having pot on their islands as well as their mainlands.  (California, as an example, passed a state law that specifically allows pot to be transported to Catalina Island for sale in the stores there.)

But a problem has developed in Massachusetts where the agency that oversees the use of marijuana in the Commonwealth, the Cannabis Control Commission, has balked and now has concerns that transporting pot across an ocean expanse may run afoul of federal laws - and the commission has temporarily halted the process.

Martha's Vineyard, the larger of the two islands, has two pot dispensaries.   One has already closed because it has run out of weed, and the other says it will be shut down by September.   Some island residents have been reduced to hopping on the ferry to the mainland to make their purchases and then stuffing their designer Gucci bags full of sticky, aromatic buds and smuggling them back to their summer homes on the exclusive island.  

But there isn't a ready pot dispensary where the ferry lands on the mainland, so the dilettante smugglers either have to take their car along on the ferry or get an Uber where the ferry lands and drive to a distribution point.  All of that effort takes a lot of time away from cocktail parties and sailing regattas.  It is such a bother and seems so unfair!

The situation is reportedly almost as dire on Nantucket.

There have also been efforts to circumvent the system by growing marijuana on the two islands, but apparently hiring "testers" to come to the islands and grade the product is not cost effective.

Sweet Baby James!

Island Song

by Pa Rock

There once was a lass from Nantucket

Who kept all her weed in a bucket

But a sailor sweet-spoken

Who had taken to tokin'

Emptied her pail and did chuck it.