After winning his re-election bid last year, Mayor John Ducey held a party. Many political allies and operatives were in attendance, but one man slipped by anyone’s attention until now. According to irate residents one of the attendees at last year’s victory celebration was Joel Allcock. According to Brick Shorebeat, Allcock is the Chief Operating Officer of Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care, the company lobbying township officials to build a marijuana dispensary in the township.
Despite failing to gain a license in the recent first round of expansion of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, a Brick company will still seek zoning approval to operate a dispensary and construct a 48,000 square foot grow house.
The Brick Township Board of Adjustment is scheduled to resume hearing a proposal for a medical marijuana dispensary on Jan. 9.
The hearing is set for 7 p.m. at Civic Plaza, 270 Chambers Bridge Road in Brick, zoning board secretary Pamela O'Neill confirmed. Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care is seeking permission to turn the former Ocean First bank on Adamston Road into a medical marijuana dispensary.
And finally, the fate of a proposed marijuana dispensary at the site of the former OceanFirst Bank on Adamston Road is still unknown since a second Board of Adjustment meeting scheduled for December was postponed since the crowd was too big for the meeting room.
The meeting would be rescheduled for a larger venue at a later date.
The state is allowing six treatment centers to be opened in New Jersey: two in the north, two in central Jersey and two in the south.
Jersey Shore THC was not one of six dispensaries licensed by the state Department of Health on Monday. Despite Ocean County having the second-largest number of medical cannabis patients in the state, neither the proposed Brick dispensary nor any others in the Shore area were licensed. Instead, the state opted to license dispensaries in Phillipsburg, Paterson, Rahway, Ewing, Atlantic City and Vineland – nearly all of which already have a dispensary closer than Brick.
But the firm, owned by Anne Davis of Brick and Karen Medlin, a Marlboro Township resident, had met significant opposition from neighbors of bank site. The proposal was supposed to go back before the zoning board in January.
Davis said she and Medlin were disappointed by the department's choices of applicants.
"None were awarded in Ocean or Monmouth County despite being the second- and third-highest register patient population," Davis said. "Our area is still woefully underserved. For that reason, we will be applying next round.
Karen Medlin, who co-owns Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care, has sought to place a dispensary on the site of a former OceanFirst bank on Adamston Road, but did not receive the necessary license when six were announced Monday by the state Department of Health.
Medlin said the state's decision was disappointing, but added that she would move ahead with her application before the Brick Board of Adjustment. She is hoping that Jersey Shore THC is awarded a license in the Department of Health's next round of awards.
A recreational marijuana dispensary may not find a home in Brick if the plant is legalized in New Jersey, with Mayor John Ducey calling the potential revenue that would be dedicated to municipalities under a bill being considered by the legislature “a joke.”
Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration had initially supported a tax of up to 25 percent on recreational cannabis sales, but two legislative committees this week advanced a bill that would impose a 12 percent tax on sales and allow municipalities where dispensaries would be located to impose an additional 2 percent tax.
A group of Brick Township residents are battling to stop a medical marijuana dispensary from opening in the town.
There are plans to transform the now-closed First Ocean Bank on Adamston Road into a dispensary. But residents who live across from the proposed site say that they do not want it to be built.
"Nobody wants it. I've spoken with probably 500 residents within a half-mile from here. I’ve given out flyers. I can't find anyone who wants it,” says neighbor Alex Marcupol.
The fate of a proposed medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation facility won't be known until at least January.
The zoning board Monday postponed a meeting due to overcrowding.
The meeting room at the Brick municipal building was already at capacity 30 minutes before the Board of Adjustment was scheduled to meet. While the next hearing date isn't known yet, it will definitely be held in a larger location.