Mercer County

Michael Ruger, Mayor of Hopewell Township, stated: ‘I am excited to hear Stone Hill’s application has been granted by the CRC. We look forward to welcoming this new business to the Township”.

A new cannabis dispensary is all set to open in Mercer County in the fall.

Canna Remedies will be coming to Ewing in the fall of 2023. The dispensary will be located at 2175 Spruce Street.

The team behind Canna Remedies developed Keystone Canna Remedies, the first dispensary to open in Pennsylvania. They grew to three locations across the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos before being acquired by TerrAscend in 2021.

It was once a nickname, a marketing gimmick that morphed into a battle cry for marijuana freedom in the Garden State, but for 20 years, Ed Forchion failed to change his name to “NJWeedman.com.”

That changed, much to his surprise, on Monday Oct. 17, when a Mercer County judge finally signed off on his petition. Forchion’s website, which he admittedly hasn’t updated much in recent years, is now his legal name.

“Honestly, I just don’t like losing,” Forchion 58, told the Inquirer Thursday. ‘It always bothered me.”

Consider two towns in Middlesex County, New Brunswick and East Brunswick. In New Brunswick, more than three-quarters of residents voted in favor of legalization, the majority of the population is made up of minorities, and the median household income is below the state average, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In nearby East Brunswick, close to two-thirds of residents voted in favor of legalization, the population is white majority, and the median household income is above $100,000.

New Brunswick allows the sale of recreational marijuana; East Brunswick banned it.

Training in how to operate dispensaries is a burgeoning industry and MCCC is in on the action. Students can take the non-credit cannabis training program at the college with the upcoming 15 hour course taking place over the summer.

In a survey of 30 MCCC students, half responded that they use marijuana. Of those 88% agreed with legalizing the recreational sale of marijuana.

One student anonymously responded saying, “Yes, it is a great choice economically and medical use has shown many benefits that cigarettes and alcohol never have.”

Long lines formed outside Zen Leaf well before opening time at 9 a.m. By 10.30 a.m. many had passed through the dispensary doors, with customers still lining up outside.

But inside, it was business as usual at this swanky dispensary, with a focus on medical marijuana users and customer comfort.

Marijuana might be legal in New Jersey, but residents of most area municipalities will have to travel to another town if they want to buy some.

Only four communities in Mercer County—Ewing, Lawrence, Pennington and Trenton—are set to allow the retail sale of cannabis within their borders. Also on that list is Bordentown City in Burlington County.

A public Q&A forum was held on Thursday, May 20, by Hopewell Township to discuss the recent legalization of cannabis by the State of New Jersey and how new regulations on the industry might affect the municipality. The meeting, led by Committee member Michael Ruger, was the first and only planned forum presenting different sides of the argument for allowing or not allowing marijuana entrepreneurs to set up shop in Hopewell.

More than a year after the New Jersey Department of Health granted initial approval to a Chicago-based company’s proposal to open a medical marijuana facility in Mercer County, the firm is expected to seek approvals at the municipal level.