If Wednesday's ordinance is adopted on second reading, Clifton would join an expanding cadre of communities that have voted to prohibit the sale of recreational marijuana within their boundaries.
For the past several months, the city's council has examined how other municipalities approached the banning of legal pot sales.
During its Wednesday night work session, at the behest of Councilman Peter Eagler, his colleagues decided to model the new ordinance on the one adopted last December by Point Pleasant.
City Council has approved plans for a medical marijuana dispensary to be built at the former site of The Press of Atlantic City.
During the same Monday meeting at which council approved redevelopment of 11 Devins Lane, it passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of recreational marijuana throughout the city.
James DiNatale, owner of RGC3 LLC, purchased the old Press building on Devins Lane in December. Superior Grow Lab will operate the medicinal marijuana operation on the site.
The zoning ordinance mainly prohibits a retail business that would seek to open in Secaucus and sell recreational pot and paraphernalia, should recreational marijuana become legal in the state, explained Ken Porro, the town's general counsel. Any such business would have to first seek a variance from the Town Council to open, a variance they likely would not get.
East Rutherford is the latest municipality to ban the sale of recreational marijuana in an attempt to get around proposed state legislation to make it legal.
The council voted unanimously to prohibit any dispensary intended for the sale of non-medical marijuana, or any of its psychoactive derivatives, throughout the borough. Hemp products are excluded.
dePierro states “New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently expanded access to the state’s medical marijuana programs and reiterated his desire to legalize marijuana for recreational use. In support of his efforts, the Governor issued “Executive Order 6″ which expedites and relaxes the permitting process for new Distribution Centers. The Executive order also permits the manufacture, processing and sale of edible cannabis products.
(Wyckoff) Township Committeemen Tom Madigan and Tim Shanley took steps this week to address the pending liberalization of New Jersey’s policy on marijuana.
With Trenton politicians likely to legalize marijuana in the next six months, Madigan and Shanley introduced an ordinance to ban the sale of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia in Wyckoff.
For one thing, cities and towns aren’t lining up to support the idea. Over 20 towns have taken action to keep cannabis related businesses outside their borders, while just three towns have said that they would welcome a recreational marketplace.
Should marijuana be legalized in New Jersey, growers and sellers would not be able to do business in Barnegat Township. An ordinance adopted at the July 2 township committee meeting will forbid the “sale, manufacture and farming and marijuana paraphernalia” in the municipality.
Deputy Mayor Alfonso Cirulli acknowledged the ordinance could eventually be declared moot.
“Eventually, the state may not allow us to do this,” he said. “Whatever we do will be superseded by anything that the state does.”
As June burned to a close, lawmakers in Trenton were still scrambling to pass a budget by the end of the month and avoid a government shutdown. Surprisingly absent from negotiations was one of the main platforms on which Gov. Phil Murphy ran for office: marijuana legalization.
Despite support from top lawmakers, marijuana reform couldn't get done before the June 30 budget deadline. It's now been delayed until at least later this summer.
HARDING TWP. – Should Gov. Phil Murphy opt to legalize both the growth and recreational use of marijuana, the township may turn the other cheek and forbid it.