However, it may still be after all, following a later 3-2 vote along party lines that granted the proprietors’ request.
Setting the ruckus in motion before that vote, however, is when Greg M. D’Agostino, a partner in a Massachusetts-based public relations firm representing the local cannabis proprietors, Aaron Marks and Nate Barney, told the township council that the men are “seeking your support for an application to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC)” for Alchemy Botanics to receive a “Class 5 Retail Cannabis License,” noting “our proposed Class 5 dispensary is located at 6 Fort Dix Road.”
Marks, a senior engineering manager at a global cybersecurity firm who also spent 17 years in the defense industry, identified himself as “majority owner” of Alchemy Botanics, and contended that his experience of “working on various projects in a controlled area” is what “qualifies me for working in situations that are highly regulated and controlled,” while Barney said he worked with Marks when he was at Lockheed Martin, with Marks touting their friendship over the years.
Marks called what is proposed a project that will “ultimately benefit Pemberton.”
D’Agostino, in providing those project details, maintained that at 6 Fort Dix Road is an existing 4,000 square-foot stand-alone building which “both meets the size and the type” of facility required “under Pemberton’s cannabis ordinance.”