BOSTON (CBS) — In the same year Massachusetts pot shops first opened their doors to customers for recreational use, WBZ’s I-Team finds local post offices set a record for stopping bundles of marijuana.
“You can’t ship it,” says US Postal Service spokesperson Stephen Doherty. “It’s still illegal under the Federal Controlled Substances Act…people have to be aware of that.”
Records obtained by the I-Team show in 2018, Massachusetts postal inspectors confiscated 434 marijuana packages through the end of November. That’s more than triple the rate when pot first became legal in the state.
It’s a statistic that has some marijuana advocates alarmed. “It’s very concerning that there’s still a focus on cannabis, just because we know that the focus includes money, it includes time, and resources,” said Stephen Mandile, who runs a group called Veterans Alternative Healing. He’s an Army veteran who suffered serious spinal cord and brain injuries during an Iraq deployment. It led to a decade-long opioid and benzodiazepine addiction.