Channeling the Boston Tea Party’s rebellious spirit while dressed in traditional colonial garb, MariMed, Inc. executives and team members staged the ‘Boston 280E THC Party’ from a boat in Boston Harbor on July 12. 

In reenacting 1773’s “No taxation without representation” revolt, the event protested Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Service Code, which prohibits businesses that sell Schedule I or Schedule II substances from deducting ordinary business expenses. 

Paying homage to the most famous tax protest in the year of its 250th anniversary, MariMed Inc. surprised the crowds at Boston Harbor when they boarded the Liberty Star schooner, heaved cargo chests emblazoned with “WEED” overboard and chanted anti-280E slogans. 

“MariMed is among the most-sound financial companies in cannabis, with top-selling brands in the markets we serve,” said MariMed CEO and President Jon Levine. “Our protest was less about us and more to provide a voice for the entire industry. Section 280E is unfair and hampers companies striving to make cannabis accessible for consumers and medical cannabis patients in all legal states. It should be repealed. Doing so would remove an obstacle to our mission to improve people’s lives every day through cannabis. We applaud some of the states where we operate, including Massachusetts, Illinois and Maryland, plus the 17 others that have approved laws providing cannabis businesses relief from 280E.”