New Jersey Legalization

According to New Jersey 101.5, cannabis-infused products like cookies, brownies, gummies or anything that "resembles food"—aside from lozenges—will not be permitted for sale in the state.

While the industry is frustrated with the state's lack of licensing approval, the article states that some groups seem OK with the state's infused products regulations.

The New Jersey Courts launched an awareness campaign last week to notify people if they had prior convictions for low-level offenses involving marijuana or hashish that those convictions were wiped from their records.

Once a case has been expunged, a person no longer needs to disclose their former conviction on applications for jobs, housing, or educational programs.

As was discussed in detail during Foley Hoag’s recent New Jersey webinar, the adult-use regulations released by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (“CRC”) contains several unanswered questions. For instance, when will the CRC begin accepting applications (they have already missed the statutory deadline)? How will applicants navigate the complexity of the local municipal approval process amidst towns seesawing between opt-ins and opt-outs?

The second annual Cannabis Convention will be held this weekend (Oct. 2 & 3) at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. Event organizers say it is the state’s largest gathering of industry professionals and those looking to use the adult recreation market.

As quoted in the Courier Post, “NJCANN is designed for industry leaders, advocates, entrepreneurs, career and knowledge seekers, and the canna-curious to come together to learn and meet the people paving the way for New Jersey,” New England Cannabis Convention Founder and President Marc Shepard said.

The commission responsible for establishing and enforcing rules and regulations for the New Jersey cannabis industry will hold an informational webinar this week.

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC) has announced the CRC Recreational Cannabis Statewide Informational Webinar on Tuesday, September 28, 2021.

According to NJCRC, the webinar will focus on the new adult-use cannabis regulations and how they apply to municipalities, community members, and potential industry entrants.

Boston-based cannabis multistate operator Ascend Wellness Holdings, which operates in northern New Jersey, found that the area had “arguably some of the most expensive real estate, commercial real estate, industrial real estate, definitely in the eastern part of the country,” Chief Strategy Officer Frank Perullo said.

“As we started looking, we noticed that the prices were high regardless of the condition of the building – it was a market that was hot with or without cannabis.”

Still, out-of-state companies such as Ascend have secured real estate by:

Howell voted in July to ban recreational and medical marijuana sales, but leaders at the time said they were doing so chiefly to avoid a deadline that would have forced the town to allow such sales with no local restrictions. Howell residents voted 63% in favor of legalizing marijuana in the November ballot measure. Statewide, 67% of residents voted in favor.

Madelyn Hoffman, the independent gubernatorial candidate who joined the race this summer, insists that New Jersey's new marijuana law falls well short of what voters across the state wanted.

While the legalization of pot two years ago opened the door for cannabis-related businesses to thrive, Hoffman says the profits have not been enjoyed by women-owned business — and more specifically those owned and operated by women of color.

Forchion estimates that he has already served between 1,100 and 1,200 days of incarceration for selling cannabis. His storefront was most recently raided in 2016 and he spent more than a year in jail awaiting trial on witness tampering charges, for which he was acquitted. The related drug charges were dismissed, the report says.

Forchion said that with the state’s regulations allowing micro-businesses—those that sell less than 1,000 pounds of cannabis per month—he believes that officials “are trying to bring the black market” into the legalized market.

But as the state’s recreational industry revs up, neither Senate President Sweeney nor Sen. Nick Scutari – the legislative doyen of legal marijuana – has thrown his support behind Gopal’s bill. To get some answers why the bill has stalled, Dave D’Alessandro of the Star-Ledger Editorial Board spoke with Gopal, and what follows is an edited version of that discussion:

Q. State the case for allowing home grown marijuana, particularly for medical patients.