Despite the federal prohibition on all cannabis use, 35 states have legalized its use for medicinal purposes. An estimated two to three million patients nationwide are currently enrolled in those states’ medical cannabis programs. The federal government is also relaxing its approach to regulation and enforcement as the pool of patients on medical marijuana expands.
Garden State Dispensary of Woodbridge has received a health department permit to open a new medical marijuana retail shop in Union Township, and anticipates opening for business as soon as Wednesday, officials confirmed Friday.
Assistant state Health Commissioner Jeff Brown, who oversees the state’s medical marijuana program, told NJ Advance Media his office has delivered the permit allowing the U.S. Route 22 East satellite dispensary to open in Union County.
“Everything is good on our end,” Brown said.
New Jersey medical marijuana patients vacationing in Maine this summer won’t have to pack their own cannabis medicines when they travel to Lobster Land. They’ll be able to buy some of the nation’s finest -- and least expensive -- weed when they arrive Down East.
That’s thanks to an “instant reciprocity” arrangement the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy forged with nearly two dozen states. Last week, it added patients from New Jersey and New York to the list of those who can purchase craft cannabis from hundreds of caregivers and dispensaries.
The New Jersey Department of Health is planning on expanding the state’s medical marijuana program. On Monday, it announced it was seeking applicants -- both for-profit and nonprofit -- to operate additional cultivation facilities and dispensaries.
For well over a year, New Jersey’s Democratic leaders have been trying to legalize and expand the use of cannabis in the state. Now that adult-use is all but certain to be on the 2020 ballot, and medical marijuana expansion is headed to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk, experts are contemplating what comes next.
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The biggest change will affect how permits are handed out to businesses and the industry will be divided into three groups: cultivators, manufacturers and retailers.
It’s tempting and easy to blame former Governor Chris Christie for everything that’s wrong with New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. Christie’s from the old school and was generous with contempt towards anyone who begged to differ.
Christie’s predecessor Jon Corzine signed medical marijuana legislation into law with the clock winding down on his term. So it was left to Christie to implement and regulate a medical cannabis program he never wanted.
With rumblings that New Jersey legislators could vote to legalize marijuana for recreational use within the next month, interest in launching cannabis businesses in the Garden State has never been higher.
Ellie Siegel, a Philadelphia lawyer and cannabis consultant, wants to ensure that minorities and women get a chance to participate in the state’s emerging weed economy. Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Maryland are also weighing legalizing marijuana this year for adult use.
Much of the stigma regarding cannabis can be tied to its classification as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Cannabis is considered, along with heroin and LSD as substances that “have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.”
And yet, it’s a drug that depending on its form can be classified anywhere from Schedule II to V that may be the reason cannabis ultimately is rescheduled or de-scheduled and loses the stigma surrounding its use.