A few people were lined up on Bloomfield Avenue outside Ascend on Tuesday, June 7, as the medical marijuana dispensary opened its doors at 10 a.m. to its first recreational customers — without municipal approval.
But by 1:15 p.m., sales stopped after the interim Montclair Township attorney notified Ascend if it didn’t stop recreational sales, the township would send code enforcement and police, Caitlin Fleishman, Ascend’s director of public affairs, said.
Ascend had received both state and local approval to expand to recreational sales at its Rochelle Park dispensary in April. But Ascend representatives said they were tired of Montclair “dragging its feet” on its licensing for its location on Bloomfield Avenue, which had operated as a medical dispensary since 2012, previously as the Greenleaf Compassion Center. Ascend took over the business in 2021.
Ascend's attorney had notified the township on March 27 and again on June 6 that the business intended to open for recreational sales this week, representatives of the company said.