On June 9, council members in Pompton Lakes confirmed their town's place on the list.
Michael Serra, the town’s mayor, said it was clear residents supported the idea of being able to legally smoke marijuana.
More than 65% of voters in Bergen and Passaic counties in the 2020 General Election approved an amendment to the state constitution legalizing recreational cannabis and establishing a state-regulated market in New Jersey. Pompton Lakes voters were on trend.
A number of municipalities in Passaic and Bergen counties have introduced ordinances to ban cannabis businesses.
Still, Serra said he believes the support wasn’t necessarily an invitation to the cannabis industry. On April 29, a special public meeting designed to provide town officials with input on a potential "cannabusiness" ban saw residents evenly split on the issue.
“At the end of the day, they probably didn’t want it in their own town,” Serra said. “They were assuming every other town would do it.”