Jon Regis is a black gynecologist who heads Reliance Medical Group, a medical practice with offices throughout South Jersey. His business partner, Ira Trocki, is a Jewish plastic surgeon who once sewed up boxer Mike Tyson’s right eye after a brutal match in Atlantic City. The pair jokingly refers to themselves as "Salt and Pepper" — a play on their racial differences.
But they’re now hoping to use the interracial nature of their business partnership as a selling point in a new venture: creating a Disneyland for adult recreational marijuana on the Jersey Shore.
As mayor of Point Pleasant Beach, I am writing in response to Mike Davis’s recent report on marijuana tourism in Colorado, "NJ marijuana legalization: Colorado tourism exploded with legal weed. Is NJ tourism next?"
According to Davis, “leaders of the cannabis industry have long dreamed of making New Jersey the East Coast version of Colorado.” The article goes on to describe a pot den called iBake Denver, where tourists can walk in and get high for as little as $3 a visit.
Leaders of the cannabis industry have long dreamed of making New Jersey the East Coast version of Colorado. Already a tourist attraction for hiking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains, legal weed has turned Colorado into a go-to destination for marijuana users, like those at iBake Denver, a two-room private lounge where members can get high so long as they pay the $12 monthly fee and $3 for each visit.
A tourist from New Jersey can walk in, pay $15, sign paperwork and legally smoke weed.
In states that allow it, legal weed has boosted industries from security guards to growers while creating new challenges for regulators, police and neighborhood activists opposed to sales near them. As the 10th state to legalize marijuana for adults, New Jersey could see changes in its economy, popular culture and public safety. Changes seen in other states include:
As more and more towns say no to legalized marijuana, is Asbury Park poised to become the legal weed capital of New Jersey?
It could turn out that way.
Asbury Park is one of only two cities in New Jersey where officials have talked openly about the opportunities associated with opening a legal weed dispensary. That enthusiasm — coupled with the city's location and reputation — could turn the City by the Sea into one of the state's epicenters for legal weed, New Jersey Cannabis Industry Association President Hugh O’Beirne said.