Cannabis Consumption Lounges

A proposed cannabis dispensary and smoking lounge in Newark is back on track after seeing earlier resistance from the city’s planning board, reports say.

Earlier this year, Hashstoria – which includes well-known Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon among its founders – put in the paperwork to open a new location at 799-805 Broad Street. The company has three existing facilities in Oregon.

Newark, New Jersey’s Central Planning Board on Tuesday approved plans by Architect Rachael Grochowski and Hashstoria to renovate a historical building in the city – the former home of engineering firm A.R. Meeker & Co and Stoutenburgh & Co. Newark Clothiers – for a cannabis consumption lounge.

Hashstoria is co-founded by Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan, civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, and radio, tv personality, and mental health advocate Charlamagne tha God. Hashstoria currently has locations in Astoria, Gladstone, and Springfield, Oregon.

Still, as countless towns across the state debate whether to allow dispensaries (and in many cases deciding that the answer is no), Stockton’s poll is an indication that New Jerseyans overall remain supportive of legal weed.

The poll additionally asked about cannabis consumption lounges; respondents were narrowly in favor (49%-45%) of allowing such lounges in their towns, and were similarly split (48%-45%) on lounges and cannabis-themed attractions being allowed in tourist towns.

Consumption lounges are already planned in Atlantic City as well as in Elizabeth, Trenton, and Jersey City, the news site reported.

In Atlantic City specifically, the city designated a new “green zone” for cannabis companies to set up shop in and has not capped any license types. One city official told the news site he’d like to see a consumption lounge attached to every legal dispensary.

According to NJ.com, Newark’s Central Planning Board denied Raekwon’s application to open his Hashstoria shop on Monday night (March 27). The board rejected the Wu-Tang Clan member’s efforts to open the lounge in Newark’s Four Corners Historic District despite the approval of the Landmark and Historic Preservation Commission.

Raekwon co-founded Hashstoria, which launched three locations in Oregon. He aimed to bring his cannabis venture to New Jersey before facing blowback from church elders in Newark.

The board also offered support for the latest in a series of cannabis projects in the works for Atlantic City, this one a proposal for a 10,000-square-foot dispensary and lounge within the Claridge Hotel at Park Place and Pacific Avenue.

The Wu-Tang Clan may hail from Staten Island, but Newark has certainly been good to the Grammy-winning music group. The acclaimed 90s rappers filmed much of their biopic “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” in downtown Newark and the South Ward. Now, one of the group members, Raekwon, is bringing a new venture: Hashstoria, a cannabis lounge, to 799-805 Broad Street.

We’re seeing the state take a similarly nonsensical position on the lounges now under consideration by the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

Again the sale of food is prohibited. Also banned are alcoholic beverages, even BYOB.

So basically the state wants you and your fellow potheads to sit and stare at each other as you get stoned.

That’s not much of a business model says Jennifer Cabrera, a lawyer with multi-state law firm Vicente Sederberg.

“You can’t buy a water there,” said Cabrera when I called her last week.”You can’t even buy a Snickers bar.”

So what do these regulations provide?

The proposed regulations, while not identifying the form of application, do prescribe the process. Specifically, within 14 days of receiving a complete application for a consumption area endorsement, the CRC will forward a copy of same to the municipality. Within another 14 days from there (and 28 days after the submission of a complete application), the municipality is obligated to notify the CRC whether the consumption area complies with its local restrictions. Thereafter, the CRC is permitted to make a determination on the application.

The new language in the rules establishes qualifications, application process, and operation instructions for cannabis retailers that wish to have spaces on premises designated for customers to consume cannabis.  Some of the regulations added for cannabis consumption areas include: