With recreational marijuana sales set to begin this summer in Massachusetts, the legal pot industry has yet to fully arrive on the Island. A medical marijuana cultivation facility is under construction in West Tisbury with a dispensary set to open sometime early next year, but retail sales could be months or years away.

Geoff Rose, who holds the Island’s only medical marijuana license, recently applied for and was granted by the state so-called priority certification to apply to sell recreational pot, but said he has taken no further steps in the lengthy application process.

However, if sales of accessories are any indication, marijuana use — long popular with the Island’s counterculture — appears to be going mainstream. Island businesses that sell pipes, vaporizers and other marijuana accessories report growing demand.

“[The merchandise] moves very quickly,” said Carol Bailey, manager at Our Market in Oak Bluffs. She said the store began offering the accessories in addition to their other inventory several months ago. “We’ve reordered like five times,” she said.

Island law enforcement leaders say they have few concerns about the dawn of the legal pot market.

“It’s not having an immediate impact on our department,” said West Tisbury police chief Matthew Mincone. “We’re going to adapt as we go.”

Geoff Rose holds the Island’s only medical marijuana license.

Ray Ewing

Geoff Rose holds the Island’s only medical marijuana license.

Ray Ewing

Oak Bluffs police chief Erik Blake echoed the sentiment.

“Our focus is that we overwhelmingly voted it in on Martha’s Vineyard, so the public has spoken,” he said, adding: “It was here all along anyway.”

What concern there is centers on the potential effect on road safety and the impact on young people.

Aquinnah police chief Randhi Belain noted there are no standardized testing measures for marijuana-impaired driving.

Chief Mincone said he has looked into advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement training to equip officers to better recognize when people are driving under the influence of substances other than alcohol. A member of the Oak Bluffs police department has a drug recognition expert certification for the same purpose.

Youth marijuana use is another concern.

“If you’re a grown adult and it’s legal go ahead and have at it, but [the question is] how are we going to make sure our kids aren’t vaping it,” said Chief Blake.

Theresa Manning, who heads the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Task Force, a group that among other things works to curb teen substance use, acknowledged that many Island teenagers are already using marijuana. But she said task force data shows that the majority of kids choose not to.

“Our hope would be that as recreational [marijuana] rolls out in our community, we start from a stronger place in terms of having stronger guidelines around youth access,” she said.

Adults over 21 can legally possess and grow marijuana (six plants are allowed and cannot be visible from a public way). And while there are broadly-drawn state regulations that remain a work in progress under the state Cannabis Control Commission, zoning and other local rules are largely left up to individual towns. Every Island town has taken its own approach.

Edgartown has a temporary moratorium on the sale of adult-use cannabis in effect until December. (It does not apply to medical cannabis.)

West Tisbury, Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs all have adopted zoning regulations that restrict marijuana sales and cultivation to certain areas, for the most part away from town centers.

Chilmark and Aquinnah have enacted no zoning or other town rules for marijuana use.

Marijuana is prohibited on the water, which is governed by federal law, and the U.S. Coast Guard has said that enforcement will be strict.

“As long as marijuana is still illegal under federal law, we will still enforce federal law,” petty officer Nicole Groll told the Gazette by phone. She said there have been no cases this summer involving confiscation of marijuana on the water between the mainland and the Island.

The dispensary is set to open sometime early next year.

Ray Ewing

The dispensary is set to open sometime early next year.

Ray Ewing

Meanwhile, construction of the Island’s first legal medical cannabis cultivation facility is underway in West Tisbury. Last week at the site off Dr. Fisher Road, workers poured the concrete floor of a new 7,200-square-foot industrial, windowless building.

“It takes it from an if to a when,” said Geoff Rose, who owns Patient Centric of Martha’s Vineyard and is the sole license holder for medical marijuana in Dukes County

“It’s exciting,” said Mr. Rose. An Oak Bluffs resident who is co-founder of the Our Island club, he hopes to begin marijuana cultivation in the new building this fall and begin selling the product at a medical dispensary at a separate storefront on State Road by next year.

He began the application process for a medical marijuana dispensary in January of 2013. The application alone comes with a fee of $30,000. Three years later he was granted a provisional license by the state Department of Public Health.

The building on Dr. Fisher Road and the land around it belong to Jim Eddy, who owns Big Sky Tents. Mr. Eddy will use 1,800 square feet of the first floor for his business, while Mr. Rose will rent the rest of the building for marijuana cultivation.

Mr. Rose has worked with Burlington, Vt.-based Ceres project management consultants for advice on the building design. The facility is also required to have a testing laboratory.

He has hired Island cultivation expert Alexis Anagnos to oversee the growing process, including equipping the grow space with LED lighting.

He also has consulted with Kyleen Keenan of Not Your Sugar Mama’s on recipes for marijuana-infused edibles. The edibles will be made at the cultivation facility, in what Mr. Rose calls an MIP (marijuana infused product) room, not a kitchen.

“The infused product is not a food product, it’s a manufactured product,” he said.

He estimated that at peak cultivation, eight to ten people will work in the facility.

The DPH requires extensive security measures, including surveillance cameras in every room. Representatives from the DPH visited the Island in May for an informal architectural review of the building. Mr. Rose said they will return for another inspection when the facility is complete to issue an approval to grow. They will return a final time to review the product and issue an approval to sell and a final certificate of registration.

With 151 registered patients in the county (up from 115 a year ago), it is unclear how much demand there will be for medical marijuana. Mr. Rose said he is confident there will be a sustaining patient base and expects to see a seasonal influx with the arrival of summer residents and visitors. Cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis are all conditions approved for medical marijuana.

Talks remain ongoing with the town of West Tisbury for a host community agreement for the dispensary. With the assistance of their attorney, town leaders are debating the details, including whether to charge impact fees for the facility.

Town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport said there are many unknowns. “The difficulty is there is not an established regulatory scheme [for marijuana],” he said. “Towns will have to try and figure it out for now . . . I’m sure we’ll look back on this in five years with a lot more clarity.”

Standing outside the doorway to his future cultivation facility on a recent late spring day, Mr. Rose reflected on his efforts.

“Two years ago or more, I would say to myself, can I actually say the word marijuana in public?” he said. “Today it is a common conversation I have. The vast majority of the conversation is one of education.”