When Jamil Taylor, CEO of alternative treatment center licensee Justice Grown New Jersey, set up a medical cannabis facility in Pennsylvania, he would host events called Marijuana Mondays: events where community members could show up and ask any cannabis-related questions that came to mind.
The events attracted all sorts of people, he said, across age groups and areas of concern.
“You get a broad range,” he said.
During the lecture entitled “Giving the Green Light to Medicinal Marijuana: An Overview of NJ’s Program and Evidence,” Elnahal will discuss the evidence that exists around medical marijuana therapy.
“New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program has grown significantly during the Murphy Administration,” Elnahal said in a statement. “It is important that we continue to share the progress we’ve made to make the program more accessible and consumer-friendly so that more physicians will consider registering.”
All appeared to be going smoothly as Avalon Borough Council prepared Feb. 13 to adopt an ordinance banning marijuana-related business within the borough.
Had it done so, Avalon would have joined about 60 other municipalities in the state which have moved to prohibit marijuana sales, manufacturing, and farming in advance of the likely passage of state legislation to legalize adult recreational marijuana use.
Senate President Steve Sweeney today toured the Breakwater Treatment and Wellness Center medical marijuana facility where he got a firsthand view of the operation, including the marijuana grow rooms, factory and dispensary. Senator Linda Greenstein joined him at the facility in Cranbury.
The co-owner of a proposed medical cannabis dispensary and grow house on Adamston Road in Brick Township said she will continue to seek approval for the facility, but only after personal disputes with some objectors to the application are settled.
“We’re definitely not abandoning the project, that’s for sure,” said Anne Davis, a local attorney who co-owns Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care (JSTHC), the proposed dispensary, known as an alternative treatment center.
Though the applicant was not identified in discussion at the council’s workshop meeting Wednesday, redbankgreen has learned that the owners of the Galleria at Red Bank office and restaurant complex on Bridge Avenue at West Front Street made the filing last month.
The application called for creating an alternative treatment center called Breakwater in the space now occupied by Siam Garden restaurant, according to the filing. Breakwater operates an ATC in Cranbury, one of only six allowed statewide under New Jersey’s medical marijuana law.
Of the six businesses awarded new Alternative Treatment Centers by the Department of Health, Justice Grown is the least well known.
“We are the – I’m not going to say mom-and-pop – but we are the smaller guy playing in a very, very big market,” Justice Grown NJ CEO Jamil Taylor tells NJ Cannabis Media. “We were founded by social justice attorneys that believe that cannabis is a social justice issue. We feel diversity and inclusion are a very, very big piece of our business and our branding. Hence the term Justice Grown.”
And that may be true. But in South Jersey, the state has given the green light for two dispensaries to open on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
And the ATC which made the first request is none too happy about it.
Compassionate Care Foundation, based in Egg Harbor Township, sought state permission to open a satellite dispensary in May, and the state said yes. Founder David Knowlton said they are slated to open in June, following a period of engineering and construction work.
5. What's your next step to grow your marijuana business?
I'm in the process of opening a new dispensary in Adams County that will serve customers in Arvada and north Denver.
I want to expand the business in other states. We applied for a medical marijuana license in New Jersey, but didn't get it. We are still exploring markets in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. We want to go there because we have friends there.
Michigan and Canada also are on our radar.
A month after the New Jersey Department of Health doubled the amount of Alternative Treatment Centers, it is already planning to expand further.
“Twelve is not enough,” was the blunt assessment by Jeff Brown, assistant health commissioner in charge of the medicinal marijuana program told an audience of more than 125 at the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s “Cannabis Economy: Are You Ready” event at the National Conference Center in East Windsor on Jan. 23.