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In the fall, the township supported a proposal to open a cannabis retail store in the Rio Grande section, at a long-vacant site where a diner once stood on Route 9. The township has backed the Massachusetts-based cannabis company Insa, which has plans for a retail location but so far has not been granted a state license.
In November, the township said no to allowing a second retail site, from C3 Middle Township LLC. At that time, Mayor Tim Donohue said he expected to see litigation filed in connection to that decision.
This town’s budding ‘cannabis corridor’ could be getting competition.
A Michigan firm, Hempnotize New Jersey LLC, wants to open a weed shop in a vacant office building on Church Road near Fellowship Road, according to an application before Mount Laurel’s planning board.
That’s less than a mile from a cluster of three proposed dispensaries near Church Road’s intersection with Route 73.
A report from a patient advocacy group found the future of medical cannabis in the states is hazy unless costs are decreased, product safety standards are improved, and civil rights are strengthened for patients and prescribers.
Americans for Safe Access issued its annual State of the States report on Thursday. The organization, a nonprofit, has put out the document to advocates and state policymakers since 2014, as a tool to “assess and improve medical cannabis programs.”
Ascend, which completed its initial public offering (IPO) in May, has operations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois including its flagship retail locations. A pending investment in New York will give Ascend access to that market — one of the hottest new markets to approve cannabis for recreational use. The company looks to grow into other limited license recreational or near-recreational markets. Examples of such markets include Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Arizona.
The decision could put two competing dispensaries just a block apart in the city. The state only has 15 medical marijuana dispensaries currently. Some are more than an hour away from a competitor.
Terrapin, which has dispensaries in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado, sued the Hoboken Planning Board and Harmony last fall. It claimed Harmony lacked valid approval because it bypassed a newer municipal law requiring applicants to come before the review board.
The Department of Justice has issued a new advisory requiring gun dealers in one state to conduct federal background checks on all unlicensed gun buyers because existing policies, the government argues, have enabled “habitual marijuana users” and other disqualified individuals to obtain firearms illegally.
Though cannabis is legal for adults under Michigan state law, it remains a restricted Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Consequently, consumers of marijuana have been forbidden from purchasing or possessing firearms.
New Jersey
Last week, Politico reported Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney moved to ban the sale of all vaping products, including marijuana vape products.
That followed New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announcing a task force on vaping that is due to file recommendations in the next three weeks.
“The only safe alternative to smoking is not smoking. Period. Full stop,” Murphy said..
Saying he wants to allow people to “move on with their lives,” Jeff Irwin, a Michigan state senator from Ann Arbor, has introduced a bill that would allow the state to expunge the arrest records of state residents on misdemeanor marijuana use and possession charges.
A majority of the United States has legalized cannabis in some way, and it’s very exciting, I get it. Fewer people are being arrested, more people are getting off opioids, and accurately dosed pot chocolates might be the best thing to happen to weekends since the invention of television. But this state-by-state legalization thing that we’re doing is kind of a mess, mostly because federal prohibition hampers the whole thing from the get-go.
In just two decades, the cannabis industry has evolved from an untracked black-market business to a legitimate industry – generating $10.4 billion in revenues in 2018. The industry’s growth is poised only to continue, with expectations that it will eclipse $25 billion by 2025.
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis in some form, whether for recreational or medical use, and many others elected pro-cannabis governors in last year’s midterm elections, meaning that another big leap forward may happen as soon as this year.
