Social Equity Funding

A sea change in the funding of New Jersey cannabis businesses has been approved by New Jersey’s Legislature and is pending on Governor Murphy’s desk awaiting his signature. Duane Morris attorneys assisted in the conception and drafting of this legislation.

New Jersey's Cannabis Regulatory Commission has had the somewhat unenviable task of overseeing the debut of recreational-use marijuana sales in the state, but after three months some areas of concern are emerging.

And there don't seem to be ready-made answers, according to Todd Polyniak, who leads the cannabis practice for Parsippany-based firm Sax, LLC and works with clients who have applied for recreational retail licenses.

Lawmakers previously passed the bill, SB21-111, by a vote of 19-15 in the Senate and 40-23 in the House.

The so-called marijuana entrepreneur program will be funded initially with $4 million from the state’s marijuana tax cash fund.

The program will include:

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D) said on Tuesday that the legislature is “really, really, really close on marijuana” following negotiations with executive staff office over recent weeks. “We have gotten past the impasse of the impaired driving.”

“We are looking to get language that will I think be satisfactory in the next day or so,” she said during a virtual press briefing.

While Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger (D) didn’t explicitly confirm what kind of language was agreed upon, she said in the new radio interview that she’s “extremely pleased with the agreement that we have come to” with the governor when it comes to giving adults a home grow option and how to allocate cannabis tax revenue for social equity purposes.