New Jersey’s recreational marijuana marketplace is open for business.
Recreational sales of cannabis for adults 21 and older are scheduled to start Thursday, with the first alternative treatment centers opening at 6 a.m. in part of the state.
“It’s a huge event. It’s a moment in time in American history where prohibition 2.0 is lifted,” said Ben Kovler, the chairman and CEO of Green Thumb Industries, which has two facilities opening Thursday, one in Bloomfield and another in Paterson.
What will I pay in taxes?
The price of an ounce of cannabis will fluctuate, like any commodity.
But the actual tax paid by New Jersey consumers will fluctuate as well. If the average price per ounce is $350 or more, you can expect to pay $41.50 in taxes, a markup of about 12%, including a $10 social justice excise fee.
The Bayonne City Council is expected to pass an ordinance Wednesday restricting all marijuana dispensaries to the most industrial sections of the city.
Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski was the only councilmember to vote against the measure upon its introduction, but in an interview Monday she said she is now in support of it.
Bayonne’s existing laws allow dispensaries on certain commercial corridors in the middle of the city, including on stretches of Broadway and Kennedy Boulevard. Those areas would be excluded in the new zoning rules.
The town of Maplewood has voted to allow the sale of recreational marijuana. It comes less than two days before legal cannabis can be sold across New Jersey
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Apothecarium Dispensary Maplewood has been selling medical marijuana in town for almost a year. The owners are getting ready for Thursday. Workers expect long lines, crowds and curious onlookers.
The facility is run by TerrAscend, a multistate company.
Maplewood Mayor Dean Dafis said that he wanted to make sure that the business was ready to handle sales to the public.
Recreational pot sales begin this week in New Jersey and I really oughta be more excited about it. After all, I’ve spent my adult life working to reform NJ’s backwards marijuana laws and here we are, on the precipice of what everyone else is calling a huge milestone.
An old pawnshop on Pacific Avenue is on track to become Atlantic City’s first legal retail cannabis shop after getting zoning approval Tuesday from the state’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
The CRDA, which regulates zoning in the city’s Tourism District, unanimously approved an application from Sonraj LLC, to open a class 5 micro dispensary at 2415 Pacific Ave., directly behind Boardwalk Hall, a long-vacant property. The company will call the shop “The Healing Side,” according to its application.
Last week, in a memo to police chiefs and local officials, acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin noted that New Jersey police departments "may not take any adverse action against any officers because they do or do not use cannabis off duty."
Police departments also can't fire or refuse to onboard employees simply due to the presence of cannabinoid metabolites in an officer's body fluids, Platkin added.
The state is just days away from legal sales of adult-use recreational marijuana. Assistant general manager Joe Greene says ZenLeaf in Elizabeth is ready for launch this Thursday, when the recreational cannabis marketplace opens in New Jersey. Just a few weeks ago, ZenLeaf was one of seven medical facilities blocked by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission from launching a recreational marketplace. But last week, all seven were approved.
So many people noted the irony of the start date for buying weed legally here in the state. After all, you would’ve expected it to be April 20, not April 21. Some speculate that April 20 would’ve caused too much chaos.
I believe it’s just that they did not want to play along. After all, the date 4/20 is too closely associated with illegal weed and “potheads” you knew in high school.
At the Tuesday meeting of the board of directors for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, members will consider a proposal for a cannabis dispensary at 2415 Pacific Ave.
The site is currently home to a vacant retail building, set between Delilah’s Den and a corner liquor store a block off the Boardwalk.
The application is for a “Class 5 micro dispensary for the sale of recreational cannabis” and requires a variance. The CRDA functions as the planning board for Atlantic City within the tourism district.
The company applying for the variance is Sonraj LLC.