Minninger’s view was in vogue among the panel members at NJBIZ’s Business of Cannabis event Tuesday at the Imperia in Somerset, moderated by New Jersey CannaBusiness Association President Scott Rudder.
“People don’t know what they don’t know. The perception is Cheech and Chong’s head shop. Folks here know that’s not true,” Minninger said. “There’s this perception that there will be a higher crime rate, vagrants coming in, people laying on the sidewalk stoned. To be able to come to an event like this where you have good folks in here — that changes the perception.”
Although the recent application round for four new Alternative Treatment Centers in New Jersey is over, another is expected as early as December, according to Bill Caruso, head of the cannabis practice at law firm Archer & Greiner PC.
Community outreach and involvement allowed panelist Rosie Naumovski, vice president of Treatment Solutions of New Jersey Inc., to change the perception of cannabis dispensaries in her home state of Illinois and open a treatment facility near a church.