A Vineyard marijuana dispensary and state regulators have started settlement talks in a lawsuit over if marijuana can be transported across Vineyard Sound to the Island. 

The Cannabis Control Commission and Island Time, a Vineyard Haven dispensary, asked a Suffolk County Superior Court judge this week to pause court proceedings for two weeks as the two parties try to work things out. 

The request was granted on May 31, just days ahead of the commission’s Thursday meeting at the Oak Bluffs library to talk about the struggles of getting marijuana to the Vineyard, which is illegal under federal law. 

Island Time sued the commission in May, claiming its ban on transporting marijuana from the mainland to the Vineyard is arbitrary and puts an undue burden on Island-based dispensaries. 

Island Time, owned by Geoff Rose, closed last month after Fine Fettle, a dispensary and commercial growing facility in West Tisbury, announced it was shutting down for financial reasons. Island Time was getting its products from Fine Fettle.

The Cannabis Control Commission, a statewide agency that oversees commercial and medical marijuana operations, has said that all marijuana sold on the Island has to be grown here, due to both state and federal regulations.

The commission raised the Island’s fragile supply chain at a meeting in May, and vowed to hold a meeting here to better understand the problem, which as it stands could leave about 230 medical marijuana patients without legal access to cannabis. 

A hearing on Island Time’s request for a preliminary injunction was supposed to be on June 5, but now will be put on hold for 14 days as the parties attempt to work out a compromise. 

The commission had authorized its attorney to enter settlement discussions and hoped to work them out, potentially as early as this week. 

The Cannabis Control Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting at 11 a.m. at the Oak Bluffs library on June 6. People can attend in-person or virtually.