Anti-marijuana activists are urging Vermont lawmakers and state prosecutors to crack down on the companies and individuals who “gift” weed to customers in exchange for other purchases, and for a profit.
In the advent of recreational legalization, entrepreneurs and opportunists have started giving “free” marijuana to customers who pay inflated fees for other products or services as part of the same transaction.
Under the new law, selling marijuana remains illegal, but giving away up to an ounce of the drug away is not.
Weed delivery services, including the Burlington-based companies Rolling Flower and Weedy’s Warehouse — which the Burlington Free Press reported on Friday — have started to appear. These enterprises will bring marijuana to your doorstep and say they’re only charging for the delivery.
Other Vermonters have started offering gifts of marijuana over the internet—via Craigslist or social media platforms—if customers agree to pay for other items or services.
Groups who oppose marijuana legalization are asking state prosecutors to take these profit-seeking marijuana gifters to court. And they also hope that legislators will act to explicitly criminalize gifting in the next legislative session.
“During the crafting of Act 86 earlier this year, the Legislature did not expressly prohibit marijuana ‘gifting’ for profit, despite being warned of the popularity of this practice in other legal ‘recreational marijuana’ jurisdictions, such as Washington, D.C.,” anti-marijuana groups Physicians, Families and Friends for a Better Vermont and Smart Approaches to Marijuana for Vermont, said in a joint statement Thursday.
County prosecutors and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office have yet to publicly announce their views or legal interpretations of the practice.
However, Attorney General TJ Donovan plans on issuing a guidance on the matter early next week, according to Charity Clark, his chief of staff.
Guy Page, the executive director of Physicians, Families and Friends for a Better Vermont, said he hopes that lawmakers ultimately decide to repeal marijuana legalization.
But barring that, he hopes they will close the “loophole” in the law that encourages gifting.
“I think that any so-called economic activity where the business model is the addiction of young people to the detriment of mental health, their education, their future productivity is a definite downer to the people of the state of Vermont,” he said.
In an interview last week, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said he believed the practice of gifting was clearly illegal, referring to an opinion written by the Office of Legislative Council during the last session, while lawmakers were in the process of crafting the legalization bill.
Officials with the Office of Legislative Council could not be reached for comment Friday.
