Demand for medical marijuana may be booming in New Jersey and the public has overwhelmingly learned to accept that cannabis can provide real medical benefits for certain patients.
But finding an acceptable location to grow and process the drug may still be tricky, even in rural farming communities.
That reality was plain to see Tuesday night when more than a hundred people packed into Springfield’s small municipal building for a planning board hearing on a proposal to develop a medical marijuana cultivation and processing operation off Juliustown Road.
While an effort to legalize marijuana in the Garden State went up in smoke earlier this year, it’s still been an eventful summer for pot in Hudson County. Just last month, we broke the news about a medical marijuana manufacturing facility that’s coming to Jersey City and now a building near Hoboken’s main transit hub could be getting a little “greener,” so to speak.
In a move that opens the possibility of a medical marijuana dispensary here, the township has written several letters of support for vendors who want to set up shop.
The letters do not commit the township to having a dispensary but instead help establish relationships with vendors who have expressed interest in the town, and who likely are looking not only for profitable locations but for local governments enthusiastic about having a dispensary.
While marijuana isn’t fully legalized in the District—recreational sales remain illicit due in large part to congressional interference, and public use is barred under a 2015 law—a new initiative by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration is allowing more people to benefit from D.C.’s medical cannabis dispensaries. Under expedited rules that Bowser announced earlier this month, the District now recognizes medical marijuana cards from 27 states where it is legal, up from 19 states before. D.C. officials were also reviewing four other states’ eligibility.
The Borough Council voted unanimously Monday to support the first-ever medical marijuana dispensary in the municipality after a group seeking to open a facility made a presentation at a special council meeting.
But that is just the first step as the proposed site still needs approval from the state Department of Health.
Egg Harbor Township gave four companies letters of support for their applications to open medical cannabis facilities there during a special meeting Wednesday.
The deadline to apply to the state to compete for 24 new licenses is this month.
“This (the letter) is a small piece of the puzzle,” said Committeeman Frank Balles. “It would be great to have the ratable.”
The Scotch Plains Township Council voted unanimously to endorse the application of High Rise Botanicals (HRB) Group, which includes Scotch Plains native and local business owner Sean Flannery, who spoke at the meeting.
The group is seeking to apply to the state for a medical marijuana dispensary that would be located at the site of the San Giuliano property on Route 22 East.
Garden State Botanicals, a new corporation formed by pharmaceutical veteran Pat Nasshorn of Margate, will make a presentation to the governing body at a special 6:30 p.m. meeting Monday — being held in advance of a Thursday deadline to apply to the New Jersey Department of Public Health.
Nasshorn told the Press she spent 40 years in the drug industry as a marketer and strategic planner for Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and wanted to open the dispensary to help those in need of medical marijuana.
The committee's special meeting, held Wednesday, was supposed to only feature a presentation by LivWell New Jersey for a medical marijuana facility with a standalone dispensary.
Three other companies heard about the meeting and made presentations to the committee during the general public discussion portion of the meeting.
The township is already host to one approved medical marijuana facility, Compassionate Care, near Delilah Road.
The would-be operator of a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in Riverside is also seeking a license and to cultivate and process the drug at a site in this rural township.
Moorestown attorney Christopher Baxter and his new business, Bailey Farm LLC, is seeking approval from the Springfield Township Planning Board to build a 30,000-square-foot greenhouse and 8,000-square foot processing building on a 33-acre tract of land off Juliustown Road.