The township committee on Tuesday voted 4 to 1 change the township's land use code, allowing for medical marijuana dispensaries in the Lacey Township Business Park.
The committee also voted unanimously on an ordinance to ban recreational marijuana sales, if the ballot measure to legalize weed in New Jersey passes. That ordinance will hold a public hearing on Sept. 10.
“We’re assuming this is going to pass in November, and we don’t know what rules are going to be in place,” Lacey Mayor Steve Kennis said. "It’s a complete money grab by the state, and I completely disagree with them legalizing it at all. But this is planning for it. We don’t know what the state is ultimately going to do.
"We just want to have some control, some leeway,” he said.
If weed does become legal, Deputy Mayor Peter Curatolo was fearful that Lacey would become a "tourist destination" if the town was the only one to allow recreational marijuana.