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While promising to open New Jersey’s legal cannabis consumer market, the state may not meet a self-imposed deadline originally set for late February.
Jeff Brown, the executive director of the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission, said a number of factors are still in the way before the doors can open, including lack of municipal buy-in.
“There’s still a lot to be done,” Brown told NJ Cannabis Insider ahead of today’s CRC meeting, scheduled to start at 1 p.m. “Feb. 22 is not a concrete date to open. There is no firm commitment on timing of when recreational sales will begin.”
State legislation, S-21, directed the CRC to begin allowing sales on that date — six months after rules and regulations were established by the commission.
However, there are few, if any ways of enforcing the deadline, according to one legal expert. Executives at the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association, which represents current licensed cannabis growers and sellers, have for months been putting pressure on the the state to open the market with assurances that there is enough weed for medical patients and general consumers.
“We’re going to keep pushing to move as fast as we can” to open, said Brown in the same phone interview. “That requires approval and industry readiness, and the readiness is uneven.
“One of the biggest deficiencies we’re seeing is a lack of municipal approval,” said Brown. “That’s an issue, and supply continues to be issue. It’s the priority of the CRC to get recreational sales started as soon as we can, but we have to do it in a way that’s compliant with the law. We need the industry to get there.”
Executives from Verano and Curaleaf, both members of the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association, shared their concerns over the uncertainty.
“The regulations have not been finalized, and we haven’t heard back on our application,” said Patrik Jonsson, regional president of the northeast for Curaleaf, one of a dozen medical cannabis companies in the state that have applied for licenses to expand their medical facilities.
Curaleaf, the largest operator in the state, has two cultivation facilities in Bellmawr and Winslow. It also has three retail sites intended for both medical and adult-use cannabis in Bellmawr, Bordentown and Edgewater Park.
“Give us 48 hours, and we can pretty much do whatever the state wants, and we’ll open,” said Jonsson. “We have product, the people and the facilities. There are a few minor things we need clarified around the product. But we are very much ready for turning it on as soon as the state lets us.
“We just don’t know what we have to do to bring it over the finish line,” Jonsson said. “That’s all on the state at this point.”
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New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, who was prime sponsor of both S-21 and the measure to legalize medical marijuana in 2009, said on Thursday that he was “disappointed” the CRC likely would not meet the February deadline. Though he declined to elaborate, Scutari has been vocal in wanting the recreational cannabis market to open up as soon as possible.
“I wish the CRC would move faster,” Scutari was quoted on Jan. 7, when he appeared via Zoom before the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association as a luncheon speaker. “But I know it’s a complicated process.”
Attorney Charles Gormally of Brach Eichler in Roseland said under the statute, there is no way to enforce the February deadline and there is no penalty for not meeting it.
“Feb. 22 should be viewed as aspirational,” said Gormally. “There is surely no way to meet this deadline in connection with those who have recently applied for a license to grow, manufacture or test adult-use cannabis.
“That process which commenced on Dec. 15 will likely take some additional months to result in licensure of those facilities,” Gormally said. “Thereafter a harvest cycle needs to occur which puts new licensees at least six months away from producing adult-use cannabis.”
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Suzette Parmley may be reached at sparmley@njadvancemedia.com or follow her on Twitter: @SuzParmley