Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Cannabis is currently legal throughout all of Massachusetts, but federal law prohibits the transportation of the drug between the mainland and islands like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. However state officials may have finally found a solution to the problem in a largely unknown regulation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which allows pilots to carry federally prohibited substances on airplanes as long as they are officially permitted in the state.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard sent a reminder to canna-legal states that federal law applies to all navigable waterways, giving them the right to enforce federal drug laws on any vessel on these waters. For residents of Massachusetts, this means that a waterborne shipment of cannabis products from the Bay State’s mainland to one of its islands could be seized by authorities, even though the herb is legal on both land masses.
Flying cannabis to island communities is just as risky a proposition, as federal law prohibits pilots from knowingly flying planes that have federally illegal substances on board. These transportation restrictions create a serious roadblock for island canna-businesses and…
