The Brick Township Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing March 12 on an ordinance to ban the retail sale of recreational marijuana in the township.
The ordinance, introduced Tuesday night with five yes votes and one abstention, was met with some comments in favor of it and some opposed, as expected.
In late November 2018, New Jersey lawmakers in both the Assembly and Senate voted to advance an adult-use bill, marking the first official legislative action on the issue since pro-legalization Gov. Phil Murphy assumed office in 2018. But since their 2016 takeover of the New Jersey legislature, Democrats have expanded qualifying conditions for medical cannabis treatments, licensed more dispensaries and centered criminal justice reform.
Mayor Stephen Reid is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that borough tried to cover up a conflict of interest in his dual roles as mayor and chief lobbyist for a legal weed opposition group.
The lawsuit, filed by marijuana legalization advocate and blogger Patrick Duff, alleges that the borough of Point Pleasant Beach redacted Reid's private email addresses from records obtained by Duff in an Open Public Records Act request.
Stephen D. Reid wears many hats. He is the Mayor of Point Pleasant Beach and the founder and principal of Stephen Reid Associates, a public affairs and lobbying firm. Reid also happens to be the Executive Director of NJ RAMP, an anti-marijuana lobbying group that is the client of Reid’s lobbying firm.