New Jersey’s legalized market for recreational cannabis continues to grow as sales hit $132.48 million between October and December 2022, according to the state.
For the fourth quarter of the year, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission recorded a 13% increase from the $116.57 million in revenue generated from June through September.
Two lawmakers have announced plans for legislation that would strip the state’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board of one of its main functions – determining what serious medical conditions entitle patients to legally use marijuana products.
Under the proposal, patients would be entitled to use marijuana for any medical condition if their doctors determine they could benefit from it.
Dispensaries selling cannabis at $450 per ounce; CRC hopes costs drop
With cannabis selling at $450 per ounce at dispensaries, the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) is hopeful the price will drop as more facilities open in New Jersey.
During a CRC meeting Oct. 27, Executive Director Jeff Brown said medical cannabis enrollment plateaued in May and June with lower numbers following recreational adult use sales beginning in April. He said a tremendous number of patients continue to be enrolled month over month.
In October, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission “accepted the recommendation to approve 14 of the 2019 medicinal cannabis business applications that had been previously held up due to a court-ordered stay of the review process,” with “10 applications for cultivation permits and four applications for vertically integrated permits” approved to “begin preparations to serve New Jersey’s medicinal cannabis patients.” Due to increased patient need, “five more cultivation permits were awarded than had been planned in 2019,” the commission said.
New Jersey is getting more medical marijuana dispensaries. The Cannabis Regulatory Commission has awarded provisional licenses to 30 companies located throughout the state. That will double the number of the state’s retail locations.
New Jersey's cannabis regulatory committee is set to meet today and it could grant as many as 24 new licenses to state marijuana dispensaries.
This will also better prepare the region for selling legal marijuana out of these same medical dispensaries.
Zen Leaf in Neptune Township opened last April, becoming only the second location near the shore region for residents to purchase medical marijuana.
Four state programs would begin helping cover the cost of medical marijuana for beneficiaries, under a bill that took a first step through the Legislature Wednesday.
The bill endorsed by the Assembly Health Committee, A5760, would provide long-elusive outside financial support through the Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund, Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled, Senior Gold and the Victims of Crime Compensation Office.
New Jersey medical marijuana patients are plagued with long lines, supply shortages and amongst the highest cost in the nation for medical cannabis. The reason? The number of registered medical marijuana patients has grown by tens of thousands since Governor Murphy took office, but the state has issued only a handful of medical cannabis permits since then. In fact, today there are just 14 medical marijuana dispensaries to serve over 110,000 registered patients. The math simply doesn't work, and patients are needlessly suffering.
Unfortunately, I am not the only patient in New Jersey with this problem. There are over 110,000 registered medical marijuana patients in the state, but just 14 dispensaries to serve them. This is simply too few and the reason why New Jersey’s medical marijuana is not only difficult to access but also the most expensive in the country. And now I’m concerned patients are being entirely overlooked with the state so focused on setting up the adult-use recreational market.
The Township Council this week introduced an ordinance that would allow for dispensaries to operate along the Route 9 corridor, one of the only towns in Ocean County to formally endorse medical marijuana.
"It's not that we have somebody who is interested in opening a dispensary. We're just allowing it to happen," Mayor Ken Baulderstone said in an interview. "We have residents whose doctors have given them prescriptions for medical marijuana, and it makes a lot more sense for them to go to a dispensary near where they live."