EDITOR’S NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting a day-long conference and networking event March 16 at the Carteret Performing Arts Center, featuring many of the state’s leading power players. Tickets are limited.
Round Two of applicants wanting to enter the cannabis industry in New Jersey is officially on.
The state Cannabis Regulatory Commission on Tuesday began accepting applications from those interested in opening a retail outlet to sell recreational cannabis to adults.
By 4 p.m., the commission said it had received 172 applications.
“Today is the day where the CRC (Cannabis Regulatory Commission) portal opens and applicants who wish to apply for a retail license to sell cannabis ... are allowed to do so,” said Michael DeLoreto, Director at Gibbons’ Government and Regulatory Affairs Department, who handles cannabis work.
“This is a day that a lot of businesses have been waiting for.”
Tuesday also marked the day when the state panel expected to finish reviewing applications from eight of about dozen alternative treatment centers that sell medical marijuana and are looking to the expand to the recreational market. The commission is expected to provide an update on their application status at its March 24 hearing.
The first wave of license applications began on Dec. 15, when the commission began accepting applications from cannabis growers, product manufacturers and testing labs. Those applications included ones from the dozen alternative treatment centers.
“Since the portal opened in December, potential cannabis entrepreneurs have been establishing accounts and beginning the application process, so we did not see the flurry of new accounts being set up today as we did on December 15,” said CRC Executive Director Jeff Brown in a statement. “What we saw were applicants who were already familiar with the system and ready to apply.”
Conditional license applicants, impact zone business applicants, and those that qualify for priority consideration will have their applications at the front of the line for consideration, according to the panel.
The commission is expected to receive hundreds of applications. Among the requirements is local government approval to sell cannabis.
New Jersey voters endorsed the legalization of adult recreational weed use in a ballot referendum in November 2020, but getting there has been a daunting task.
The commission has already missed a self-imposed deadline of Feb. 22 — one-year to the day that Gov. Phil Murphy the legal cannabis law — to open New Jersey to recreational weed use for adults 21 and over.
At its January hearing, the panel maintained that several applications from the alternative treatment centers were incomplete and lacked sufficient municipal approval to get full licensure.
A key goal behind the legalization of adult recreational cannabis is to right wrongs of the failed war on drugs on members of Black and brown communities, who were more than three times likely to face arrest and conviction over whites for minor marijuana offenses.
Under the panel’s rules, social equity businesses, diversely-owned businesses, microbusinesses, and conditional license applicants will be prioritized in their review and scoring.
These include businesses owned by individuals with past cannabis convictions, those from designated economically disadvantaged areas, and minority-owned, woman-owned, and disabled-veteran owned businesses.
The issue of how to best use revenue from cannabis sales for social equity programs has been the subject of regional hearings this month by the commission. The third and final hearing is Wednesday for residents of South Jersey, starting at 7 p.m. via Zoom, using the commission’s web link.
The commission said with this new round of retail applicants, there are no deadlines and applications will be accepted and reviewed on a continual basis.
DeLoreto of Gibbons said the commission, which moved from the state Department of Health to become a separate state agency overseeing the cannabis industry, has a lot on its plate. A spokesman for Murphy told NJ Advance Media there are plans to beef up staffing at the agency with the mountain of applications expected to trickle in.
“The CRC has a difficult task ahead of them – in terms of implementing a law that everyone wanted to see implemented as quickly as possible,” said DeLoreto. “They were balancing a lot of competing interests. … There’s a lot for them to do.”
DeLoreto believes the retail applicants that began applying on Tuesday are at least six to eight months from actually selling cannabis.
“You have to factor in the 90-day review process for their application, then the 120 days in order to meet the requirements of the location (municipality), then they have to get up and running and create supply and ramp up their staffing,” said DeLoreto. “They may start selling by the end of the year. Probably not for the most part.
“Looking more like early next year.”
On Friday the CRC said it had received an additional 66 applications, bringing the total so far from retail dispensaries to 236 after two days.
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Suzette Parmley may be reached at sparmley@njadvancemedia.com or follow her on Twitter: @SuzParmley