People who work for New Jersey courts can no longer take any jobs in the medical or recreational cannabis industry.
Chief Justice Stuart Rabner last week approved an amendment to Canon 5, which deals with outside employment for judicial employees and exists to avoid impropriety and conflicts of interest.
It was another patient who introduced Cindy Ortiz to medical cannabis, about a year into her treatment for breast cancer. She could barely eat and had trouble gaining weight, and her hemoglobin was low enough to necessitate frequent blood transfusions as a result.
Some licenses were denied because of technical errors. Bauchner challenged the decision in court, arguing the applications should be issued based on merit.
In December, the court granted a stay in the 2019 application process for new medical marijuana businesses. That led to the appeals process and the delay in awarding licenses.
The state health department, however, believed it did not need to stop scoring applications that had passed an initial review. The court told the department it had misinterpreted its order.
But a two-judge appellate court panel made it clear the state must cease all action on the licenses as several applicants rejected for a technical issue appeal the decision.
That means those who applied for a medical pot license last summer will have to keep waiting.
Two judges clarified a court-ordered stay on New Jersey’s medical cannabis business application review process to apply to all administrative proceedings related to alternative treatment center permits, including the scoring of applications and the ranking and awarding permits.
The New Jersey Department of Health hadn’t halted application review, said Ansell Grimm & Aaron PC Partner Joshua Bauchner, who represents seven applicants whose submissions were rejected before being reviewed due to a technical issue.
The planned expansion of New Jersey’s medical marijuana sector could be delayed after the state Department of Health hit a legal snag.
Earlier this year the Garden State announced it would issue 108 extra licenses to cannabis businesses, comprising 54 dispensary licenses, 30 processing permits, and 24 cultivation licenses. It received 190 applications for those 24 cultivation licenses and it disqualified 51 of them for reasons ranging from corrupted files to lack of local approval, lack of site control and the non-payment of fees.
A lawsuit by 25 New Jersey medical cannabis business applicants has forced regulators to halt its application review for the expansion of the state’s medical cannabis program, according to an NJ.com report. The expansion bill was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in July after lawmakers failed to pass comprehensive recreational legalization reforms.
Five applicants denied last month for medical marijuana business licenses because state officials couldn’t open files in their applications could get a second shot if a state appeals court rules in their favor.
But such a ruling could delay an expansion of the state’s strained medical marijuana program.