Firms exploit marijuana law loophole
‘Gifting’ interpretation opens door for delivery
BOSTON — That ordinary bottle of juice delivered to your doorstep will set you back at least $55. But the bag of marijuana that comes with it? On the house.
Retail marijuana stores are months away from opening in Massachusetts, but some companies have been quietly operating for more than a year, selling and delivering marijuana via a legal loophole that exists in nearly every state that has legalized recreational marijuana use.
Companies like Highspeed, which describes itself as a juice delivery service, are exploiting so-called “gifting” provisions that allow for the exchange of small amounts of the drug, so long as it’s given away — “gifted” — from one adult to another.
The legal language makes it permissible to pass a joint at a party or drop a bud in your brother’s Christmas stocking, but some entrepreneurs see it as an opportunity to get ahead of the regulated market, planting an early stake in what could become a crowded and lucrative industry.
In places where legal pot shops exist, gifting operations undercut the licensed retailers, because they don’t face the same oversight or pay marijuana sales taxes. And they complicate things in places like Vermont, Maine and Washington, D.C., which have legalized pot but have no firm plans to open regulated storefronts.
“Under any fair reading of the law, these businesses are illegal,” said Roger Katz, a Republican state senator in Maine who is studying the issue. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck.”
At least four enterprises have done gifting business in Massachusetts since marijuana was legalized in December 2016, two of them in the Boston area, The Associated Press found in an investigation that included records gathered from law enforcement agencies around the state.
In addition to Highspeed, a Boston-area company cleverly called Duuber has drivers delivering marijuana-themed T-shirts that come with gifts of pot.
Officials in western Massachusetts also looked into a Craigslist ad offering plastic sandwich bags costing up to $325 apiece (the marijuana in them was free) but dropped the case after they couldn’t identify the seller.