Following the passage last November of a ballot issue to legalize recreational use of cannabis in New Jersey and the governor’s signing of follow-up legislation into law on February 22, Princeton is faced with a decision of whether to opt in or opt out on allowing any of six cannabis industry licenses (cultivation, manufacturing, wholesaling, distribution, retail, and delivery).
With an August deadline, many related decisions still to be made, and much information from the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission still forthcoming, Princeton can choose to opt out now and then opt in at any later point or to opt in now with a lock-in period of five years.
Cannabis Task Force (CTF) Chair Eve Niedergang, a Princeton Council member, pointed out that the decision is not really over whether or not there will be cannabis in Princeton. “It’s really important to remind people that, because of the way New Jersey law is written, deliveries will be allowed everywhere,” she said. “So there’s nothing we can do even if we want to prevent deliveries here. If people are objecting because they don’t want cannabis in the community, that battle has already been fought and lost.”
The CTF started meeting in April, with a subcommittee on economic and community impact working on the question of whether to opt in to any element of the cannabis industry and, if yes, where to zone for such an industry and what to do with the tax revenues that might be generated. There is also a subcommittee on education, outreach, and enforcement, working on delivering educational messages for different populations and recommending prosecutorial and police enforcement around cannabis that reflects the community’s values.
Given the short time frame for making the initial opt-in or opt-out decision and the current lack of specificity on state regulations from the CRC, Niedergang is leaning towards postponing the decision by opting out as a temporary measure.
“I feel comfortable making a temporary decision that has only minor implications, but making a major decision without community input is not how I want to operate, and I don’t think anyone on Council would want to operate that way,” she said.