More than 70 percent of New Jersey now bans recreational cannabis businesses from operating within their municipality boundaries. This happened despite New Jersey voters approving of recreational cannabis at the November 2020 election. Why would almost three quarters of the state ban recreational cannabis businesses from operating when a majority of citizens approve of recreational cannabis?
Municipalities had until August 22 to determine if they wanted to opt into the state run recreational cannabis program. The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC) also had a deadline of August 22 to announce their basic set of rules. This expectation of municipalities agreeing to rules that hadn’t been decided yet led to several opting out of the state’s program. Most have said they needed more time to determine their own rules.
New Jersey Cannabis Program
Under the New Jersey recreational cannabis program, municipalities that opt into the program can’t change their rules or leave the program for the first five years of the program. However, for municipalities who opt out of the state’s program, they are allowed to join in at any time. Municipalities can see how the state’s program will operate, write their own rules, and plot zoning for businesses.
There is a potential for a bottleneck effect with so few municipalities agreeing to join the state’s program. Under state law, municipalities can’t ban citizens from possessing and consuming cannabis as long as it’s not on public property. Therefore, cannabis will be legal and consumed in all municipalities, despite a ban on businesses.
Some activists have been telling municipalities to opt out of the program before the deadline. “I fought hard for cannabis legalization in New Jersey, but in the past couple of months I have recommended that municipalities ‘opt out’ of allowing dispensaries as a temporary measure, unless they were ready to approve a specific dispensary before the ‘opt out’ deadline last week,” said David Nathan. He is the founder of Doctors For Cannabis Regulation. “That’s because towns that opt in cannot opt out for several years, but towns that opt out can reverse their decision at any time.”
Similar Results
Voters seem surprised by the amount of municipalities who have currently banned recreational cannabis businesses. However, this situation has happened before. In 2014, Colorado legalized recreational cannabis. However, over 70 percent of municipalities banned recreational cannabis businesses from operating. With the success the legal municipalities saw, more and more municipalities joined the state’s recreational cannabis business program. This helped them earn revenue to put back into their communities. Experts expect New Jersey may end up the same.
Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.