MEREDITH, N.H. — Martha’s Vineyard was running out of pot, just as thousands of summer vacationers were starting to arrive.
But on Thursday, Massachusetts regulators averted a cannabis drought by issuing an administrative order that will allow pot to be transported to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands for the first time.
On Martha’s Vineyard, one dispensary temporarily closed in May after it ran out of marijuana and another said it would close by September.
The Island Time dispensary had filed a lawsuit against the state Cannabis Control Commission. The other dispensary, Fine Fettle, was the sole grower of pot on the island and had provided all the pot for sale. But Fine Fettle had said the small grow operation was no longer economically feasible and was closing it down.
There are more than 230 registered medical users and thousands more recreational ones on Martha’s Vineyard. The year-round population of 20,000 grows to more than 100,000 in the summer, as many wealthy people move into vacation homes.
Although Massachusetts voters opted to legalize marijuana more than seven years ago, the state commission had previously not allowed transportation of pot to the islands. It had taken the position that transporting pot across the ocean — whether by