Dispensary

At the town council meeting held on Feb. 2, Councilwoman Eve Niedergang announced the establishment of a cannabis task force "in the near future."

"We know that legalization is coming. And whether we were personally in favor or against legalization, we must confront the issues that will be raised as a result of legalization," she said.

The task force will be led by Niedergang, councilwoman Michelle Pirone Lambros and council president Leticia Fraga.

Paterson’s long awaited marijuana medical dispensary is set to welcome its first patients Saturday.

Originally announced in December, 2018, the facility is owned by Green Thumb Industries (GTI), a national cannabis consumer packaged goods company and retailer. The Paterson location, called Rise Paterson, is GTI’s first medical marijuana dispensary in New Jersey.

More marijuana plants are finally growing in the Garden State, as one of the six new medicinal dispensaries obtained its permit to grow the plant this week.

The state Department of Health announced that Green Thumb Industries (GTI) in Paterson has passed several site inspections and background checks, as well as reviews of its security operations and cultivation facility.

“We’re very pleased to be the first ones,” said Devra Karlebach, the CEO of GTI New Jersey. “We are very honored and humbled that we were awarded a license initially."

Most of a three-hour Middle Township Committee meeting Aug. 5 was given over to public discussion of a proposed medical marijuana facility on the Indian Trail Road site of the former La Monica clam processing plant.

In the end, the governing body agreed to send a letter of support for the proposal.

A packed room listened to a prepared presentation by Insa Chief Executive Officer Mark Zatyrka, an acknowledged medical marijuana user.

The committee then turned over the next two hours to questions and comments from the public.

After more than an hour of discussion among members of the public with a range of opinions on the matter, the Borough Council decided not to advance plans for a proposed medical marijuana dispensary within its borders.

With a majority of the nearly two dozen speakers at Wednesday's council meeting opposed to allowing the operation next to the Milk Street Distillery, the council's six voting members voted unanimously for a pair of resolutions that effectively ended any hope of the facility becoming a reality.

The Borough Council will discuss whether to allow a medical marijuana dispensing facility in Branchville at its monthly meeting tonight.

Borough Clerk Kate Leissler stressed that the proposed facility is still in its early stages, so details like the size of the building and when construction would begin have yet to be established. The building's location also needs to be determined, as the applicant suggested two different spots where the facility could be housed.

Are you paying too much for medical marijuana?

Millions of Americans are legally replacing pharmaceuticals with cannabis and the question of affordability has become critical.

All of the state programs are independent and in various stages of maturity. Prices, even for closely similar products, have a wide range. Confused consumers are often paying $1000 per month at dispensaries, sometimes a lot more.

The New Jersey Department of Health today announced it is seeking new applicants to operate up to 108 additional Alternative Treatment Centers (ATCs): Up to 38 in the northern region of the state, up to 38 in the central region, and up to 32 in the southern region. Three types of endorsements will be available for ATCs: cultivation, manufacturing and dispensary. In total, the Department will seek up to 24 cultivation endorsements, up to 30 manufacturing endorsements, and up to 54 dispensary endorsements.

A mother and her two daughters who run the only women-owned medical marijuana dispensary in the state say it's time for New York to legalize recreational marijuana.

Amy, Hillary and Keely Peckham operate Etain Health in Yonkers.

"I definitely think that's where we're heading. If you look at Massachusetts, which is a bordering state, they've already opened their recreational program and so I think it would be an opportunity, an economic one at that, for New York state,” says Hillary Peckham.

The Brick Township Board of Adjustment was scheduled for a special meeting Thursday night for an interpretation of whether growing cannabis or hemp is permitted under the town's zoning ordinances.

The interpretation was to decide whether the zoning board or the Planning Board should be hearing a proposal to put a marijuana farm on an Adamston Road property that had been proposed as a medical marijuana dispensary.