Gov. Phil Murphy (D) responded to the news that the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) declined to approve existing dispensaries to start serving the adult-use market, as stakeholders had hoped would be announced at the body’s meeting on Thursday. CRC did, however, separately give conditional approval to 68 marijuana cultivators and manufacturers.
“It’s not going to be months,” Murphy said during an interview with News 12 New Jersey. “The way this is supposed to work—and it is working this way—[is] if a medical dispensary can prove it has more than enough supply for its medical customers, it’s at least eligible. And assuming it meets all the other requirements, including some municipal boxes to check, et cetera, it should be deemed eligible.”
“I believe it will still be a matter of weeks. It is not going to be months. I can’t tell you exactly a date. The commission is doing a great job,” the governor said. “I know everyone thinks it’s taken a long time. I understand that. In this case, as long as the now 127,000 medical patients across that whole system have their supplies satisfied, we should be able to go ahead—and we will go ahead.”
The governor stressed that “equity is a huge part of our proposition here, and I know that may take longer than folks otherwise would like.”