Economic And Social Justice Are Also Issues
As embodied in state law and underlined by the CRC, when cannabis sales became legal in the Garden State, it was time to fulfill the promise of helping those disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs, decriminalizing cannabis, eliminating registrations and implementing economic justice.
According to CRC Commissioner Charles Barker, who recently spoke directly to the cannabis companies at a monthly meeting, the state is not upholding its commitments to patient access, social equity and collective bargaining agreements.
However, far from fulfilling that promise, the state now faces the following problem: the market is controlled by a collection of large cannabis companies, which have operated as alternative treatment centers (medical marijuana dispensaries) before adult-use weed was legalized.
As NJ.com True Jersey reported, "these multi-state operators, MSOs, are making billions of dollars off of a plant that Black and Hispanic people were incarcerated for in the War on Drugs.”