Dear First Assistants:
It has come to our attention that there are a number of individuals and businesses that are
attempting to evade the Commonwealth’s prohibition on the unlicensed sale of marijuana by
engaging in organized sham transactions.
In January, an article in the Boston Globe noted that an individual on Craigslist had offered to
“sell” plastic bags for up to $325 each, with an accompanying “gift” of marijuana included in
each bag. See https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/03/plastic-bags-with-free-weedgift-advertised-craigslist/R1JmYwvdGZwZzHvmIPEdXJ/story.html
In much the same way, individuals operating the website tryhighspeed.com now appear to be
engaging in a similar sleight-of-hand, offering for delivery serving-size bottles of lemonade or
juice for substantially above market price ($55) with an accompanying “gift” of marijuana.
Obviously this is a thinly concealed scheme to obscure the illegal sale of marijuana by an
unlicensed seller. According to the company Twitter account, https://twitter.com/tryhighspeed,
the D.C.-based company is now making deliveries in Boston and Cambridge.
The existence of these kinds of schemes is, unfortunately, not a surprise. In his letter to the
Chiefs of Police on December 14, 2016 (copy attached), Secretary Bennett noted that the new
law “allows persons not licensed to operate a marijuana establishment to ‘gift’ marijuana in
quantities under one ounce, but not to sell marijuana in any quantity,” and that “[a]ttempts to
evade this safe harbor with delayed or disguised payments, contemporaneous reciprocal ‘gifts’ of
money or items of value, or other sham transactions, will remain a criminal act.”
We are referring this to your respective offices for investigation.
David M. Solet
Chief Legal Counsel
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security