A ballot question at the Nov. 3 election seeks to roll back the legalization of recreational marijuana stores in Massachusetts and could, in the process, cut off the Island’s current access to legal marijuana.
Massachusetts was the first state on the east coast to legalize adult-use marijuana in 2016, but the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, the organization behind the ballot initiative, argued that recreational marijuana has created health concerns and a burden to the taxpayers to mitigate legalization’s effects.
The ballot question would repeal the law that allowed commercial, non-medical stores to sell cannabis products in Massachusetts and also change the legal possession limits.
If passed, currently licensed adult recreational stores would be allowed to apply to become a licensed medical marijuana dispensary and sell their inventory to medical dispensaries.
The proposal was concerning to Geoff Rose, the owner of Island Time, a recreational cannabis store in Vineyard Haven that is the lone legal purveyor of marijuana on the Island.
“We are all about safe and responsible use of cannabis,” he said. “That is our mantra.”
All six towns on the Island voted in favor of allowing adult use marijuana stores 10 years ago, and altogether Dukes County voted 64 per cent in favor.
“Dukes County was the number one county in terms of yes votes,” Mr. Rose said.
The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which did not respond to a request for comment this week, argued that marijuana was the most common drug found in fatal car accidents in Massachusetts, and said legalization has driven up workplace injuries and health care costs.
“The rollout in Massachusetts seems to have gone too far, too fast,” Wendy Wakeman, the chair of the coalition, told Boston.com this week.
Mr. Rose contended that his business is one of the most strictly regulated industries in the state. The Cannabis Control Commission, for example, requires product testing, security measures and prohibits the sale to minors.
“We run a professional, highly-regulated adult use dispensary,” he said.
Allowing recreational stores had nearly 54 per cent of the vote statewide when it passed in 2016 and prominent politicians have come out against the new ballot initiative, including Gov. Maura Healey.
“We’ve got to keep recreational marijuana here in Massachusetts,” she told WCVB’s On the Record earlier this week. “It’s an important industry, the cannabis industry, and I hope that the voters keep cannabis.”
Julian Cyr, the Island’s representative in the state senate, was also against the ballot question.
“While there have been some bumps along the road with implementation, recreational cannabis has been done responsibly across Massachusetts,” he told the Gazette.
Mr. Cyr said he patronizes dispensaries in his district and knows a number of people who grow their own plants.
“We haven’t seen significant adverse outcomes related to cannabis use,” he said.
Repealing the law would also put Massachusetts out of step with its neighbors, which followed the Bay State’s lead on the issue, Mr. Cyr argued.
“Walking this back just seems really out of step with what other states and most other Americans are able to access and enjoy,” he said.
Legal marijuana access has been tricky for Martha’s Vineyard because it is an Island and marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. Marijuana is not legally allowed on Steamship Authority ferries, which are overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard, or by planes which travel in federal airspace.
For years that meant Island dispensaries needed to sell marijuana that was grown on the Vineyard. Fine Fettle operated a growing facility in West Tisbury, which supplied their store and Mr. Rose’s Island Time. But Fine Fettle announced it was closing down in 2024, saying the economics of growing on the Vineyard were too difficult.
With no growers on the Vineyard, stock at Island Time started to dwindle — a situation that drew national attention. Mr. Rose petitioned the state to allow Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket to import marijuana from the mainland, and the state set up special rules for the Islands in 2024.
If the repeal was passed by the voters, the Island could go back to having few options in the legal market.
“There is no operating medical dispensary here on the Vineyard,” Mr. Rose said. “If this was passed, there would be no retail medical marijuana on the Vineyard. You wind up going to the illicit market.”
Island law enforcement have had safety concerns about marijuana over the years, especially around cannabis use and driving.
Oak Bluffs police Chief Jonathan Searle said that it is difficult to make operating under the influence charges involving marijuana stick in court.
“My biggest concern was Massachusetts legalizing it without putting anything in to enforce operating under the influence of marijuana,” he said.
While he can test drunk drivers with a breathalyzer to check their blood alcohol level, drugged driving arrests rely on much more circumstantial evidence.
“There is no such standard developed for marijuana use and there is no such test for marijuana,” Chief Searle said. “I dare you to go find a conviction. It’s almost impossible to successfully prosecute.”
Because of that difficulty, Tisbury police Chief Chris Habekost said he couldn’t tell if there was any uptick since legalization.
“It’s hard for us to get those statistics because the prosecution or the investigation of OUI drugs is a very difficult thing to accomplish,” he said. But he also noted that there has not been any rise in crime related to the marijuana dispensary.
The rules around possession of marijuana would also be changed should the ballot question pass at the polls. Under the proposed rules, people 21 and older could possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Current limits are up to 10 ounces.
Possession between one and two ounces of marijuana, under the ballot question, could bring a civil penalty of $100 and a forfeiture of the cannabis.
A repeal would have tax implications at the state and local level. Marijuana establishments in Massachusetts grossed more than $1.65 billion in sales in 2025, a new annual record for the state, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission, the state agency that oversees the industry.
Tisbury gets a 3 per cent tax on marijuana sales in town, and received $114,643.85 in cannabis tax revenue in the last fiscal year, according to the town.
Customers have started to ask Mr. Rose about the ballot question, and he was planning to campaign against it in the weeks leading up to the election.
“We will be doing more public awareness,” he said. “I think it’s important that this is defeated overwhelmingly. We don’t want to let these individuals gain any kind of traction.”