Pennsylvania and New Jersey took steps to open more MMJ dispensaries, the latest sign that the East Coast cannabis market, in particular, is gathering momentum.
While Pennsylvania’s new permits are simply regulators fulfilling what that state’s original 2016 MMJ law intended, New Jersey’s move is a distinct expansion of a system that has been in place since 2010.
Both developments underscore how the cannabis industry is ballooning as patients and doctors continue to realize the medical benefits of marijuana.
We're now just over two weeks away from closing the door on 2018, and when we do, we'll likely look back on what was the biggest year ever for the marijuana industry.
In Canada, lawmakers passed the Cannabis Act in June, and officially ended nine decades of recreational weed prohibition on Oct. 17. As the first industrialized country to legalize recreational marijuana use, Canada has paved a path for other countries to follow, as well as given its legal weed companies an opportunity to generate billions of dollars in added sales.
Illinois is facing a $1 billion annual increase in retirement payments in Chicago for the next four years. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel feels that the best solution for his city is to funnel marijuana revenue directly into the pension fund. He sees that move as part of a three-pronged attack that includes revenue from a new casino in the area and also a cap to specific benefits that are given out.
“The states to watch are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Florida, with New York and New Jersey really being the ones that are more likely, I think, to go recreational in the next year or so,” said Ian Stewart, partner at Wilson Elser and speaker at the Cannabis Cover Masterclass Denver in March 2019.
As polls show record support for marijuana legalization, advocates say the midterm elections could mark the point of no return for a movement that has been gathering steam for years.
"The train has left the station," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a leading marijuana reform advocate in Congress. "I see all the pieces coming together... It's the same arc we saw two generations ago with the prohibitions of alcohol."
Around the nation and in New York, talk has turned from “if” to “when” and “how” marijuana may be made legal for recreational use. Even if Republicans manage to keep control of the state Senate, there are likely to be enough among them who understand why it is so important for New York to avoid the usual Albany impasse — stubbornly refusing to bring this issue to a vote — and give it the thorough examination it deserves.
So what are the next state-legal markets likely to excite the capital markets?
To determine the best candidates, I considered states that have medical marijuana laws with limited licenses available to operators, and a clear path to expanding the medical program and/or adopting full legalization.
Looking ahead to the next couple of years, two states stand out as likely the next big marijuana markets: New Jersey and Illinois.
In both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recent state Supreme Court rulings have made it markedly easier for police to search for marijuana. The high courts in both states have decreed that police only need smell the pungent odor of weed to conduct an immediate search — without the need for a warrant from the judge. "It opened the floodgates," said Eric Morrell, a defense lawyer based in New Brunswick, N.J.
Some police commanders say they have stepped up drug enforcement overall to tackle the opioid epidemic, and marijuana arrests are up accordingly.
The poll shows an overwhelming two-thirds of Garden Staters in agreement that legalizing cannabis and taxing its sale should be on the table as a means of providing property tax relief (64 percent agree), that New Jersey arrests too many people for marijuana possession (67 percent agree), and that legalizing cannabis will free up local police to concentrate on violent crime (67 percent agree).
It should come as no surprise, but more than a third of the 146 applicants for the six alternative treatment centers made sure they had a Jersey connection front and center.
With the New Jersey Department of Health awarding 50 of the 1,000 points available on the scored part of the application to “evidence of the ATC Entity’s support for or ties to communities in New Jersey,” 56 of the applicants made sure they had some Jersey reference in their name.