BOSTON — A slew of new startup businesses are looking to get around current marijuana laws by offering customers "gifts" of pot.
One company offers free marijuana delivery with the purchase of $50 or more of magazines, another post advertises free pot gifts for purchasing "awesome luxury t-shirts" ranging in price from $99 to $10.
Since the new law legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts went into effect late last year, a growing number of people have been selling everyday items at inflated prices and giving people an small amount of marijuana as a gift.
Even though recreational marijuana use is legal, dispensaries will not be allowed to sell to anyone who doesn't have a medical prescription until 2018 at the earliest.
“Well, if I were in business and I would have thought of it I probably wouldn’t have any problem doing it. But I’m sure they will close that loophole fairly quickly,” Janet Zucker from Walpole said.
That creates a unique problem for supply and demand, which is where the part of the law that allows gifting of up to 1 oz. of marijuana comes in handy for creative pot sellers.
“You can call it gifting, giving away it's still a drug transaction and just by its definition they are a drug dealer,” Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael said.
There' also a company called HighSpeed that sells a cup of lemonade for $55. Each purchase is hand-delivered and each customer is given a "special gift" of marijuana.
The company advertises itself as a juice delivery company.
Unlicensed sale of marijuana remains a criminal offense, and Carmichael said police intend to keep treating it that way - even if people are describing the sales as gifts.