Patient advocates filed complaints with the state Division of Consumer Affairs earlier this month to accuse medicinal marijuana operators of price-gouging, charging as much as $480 for an ounce of cannabis.
A state investigator replied promptly to say there was no legal recourse.
“The Division has reviewed the materials you submitted. We thank you for letting us know about this matter. Unfortunately New Jersey is not a price regulated state,” Kevin Noland, a supervising investigator for the office’s consumer service center wrote in Jan. 6 letters to Chris Goldstein and Edward “Lefty” Grimes and shared with NJ Cannabis Insider.
Goldstein and Grimes are members of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, a citizen organization and self-appointed watchdog for the medicinal cannabis program. They’ve been complaining about the price the program’s 121,000 patients pay for medicine since the first dispensary opened a decade ago. For most of the program’s history, consumers paid $500 after taxes, unless they qualified for discounts some dispensaries offered veterans or people who relied on SNAP or disability benefits.