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Recreational legal weed consumers in New Jersey are one step closer to placing orders for delivery of their favorite strain as the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission begins accepting applications for wholesaler, distributor, and delivery services later this month.
The three new classes of licenses will help facilitate a wider access to cannabis, allow for better consumer privacy, and possibly push prices in New Jersey’s expensive legal weed market lower, according to industry experts.
“What this will do is it will create more access to cannabis, both medical and non-medical,” said John Fanburg, co-chair of the cannabis practice at Roseland-based law firm Brach Eichler.
Although approximately 70% of the state’s municipalities have opted out of allowing legal cannabis businesses, Fanburg said these towns won’t be able to prevent recreational cannabis products from coming inside their borders with the new delivery licenses.
“The way the law is set up, a municipality cannot prevent a home delivery from coming into their municipality from a retail establishment in a town where they have a license,” Fanburg said.
The change may cause some communities to think twice about prohibiting dispensaries, Fanburg said, especially when the product is being delivered within their borders anyway.
Right now, consumers must pick up their orders in-person at one of the 47 shops where adults can buy recreational weed in New Jersey. Whereas, medical cannabis dispensaries have been allowed to deliver products to their patients at home since June 2020, a change that was made to ease patient access and allow people to stay away from dispensaries to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Businesses are “expecting a very high demand” for delivery services, said Tiyahnn Bryant, founder of Roll Up Life Inc., the first Black-owned CBD delivery and logistics cannabis company in the state.
Not only is delivery convenient for the consumer, but it also allows for a more private purchasing experience for customers who don’t want to visit a dispensary, Bryant said.
Roll Up Life is working on a new software platform that will allow recreational consumers to view dispensaries near them licensed for delivery and then choose from participating delivery companies on the platform to execute their order. Bryant said the technology will allow consumers to select who they want to deliver their order, if they have a preferred delivery service. If there is no preference, the order will be given to the closest delivery service.
However, Bryant won’t be able to apply for a delivery license until at least December. The state Cannabis Regulatory Commission is only accepting applications from social equity businesses starting Sept. 27. This means the business owner has lived in an Economically Disadvantaged Area of the state or has convictions for cannabis-related offenses, expunged or not.
Social equity applicants are prioritized in the business license application process, according to the Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Diversely owned companies — meaning minority-owned, woman-owned, or disabled veteran-owned — can apply starting Dec. 27. All others can apply starting March 27, 2024.
Since Bryant does not have a criminal conviction and his address does not qualify as part of an Economically Disadvantaged Area, he has to wait until after Christmas to apply for a delivery license. The delay was disheartening for Bryant, who created Roll Up Life in 2019 after observing the lack of minority representation in the cannabis industry.
“But, we’re trying to do what we can and make the best of it. We’re strongly ready to apply come December,” Bryant said.
Another experienced applicant who will have to wait to enter the delivery market is Claudia Post, founder of MOST Consulting Group, a cannabis marketing company. In 2021, Post also launched Scarlet Express, a dispensary delivery service providing cannabis deliveries to patients in every state.
“Businesses are going to have to do their homework if they want to enter delivery,” said Post, who has more than 20 years of experience in transportation, logistics, supply chain and chain of custody.
“They’ll need to understand not only the compliance piece and all the different regulations with cannabis, but they have to also be cognizant of what it takes to do deliveries,” said Post.
The three new categories of licenses differ slightly from one another.
A delivery license would allow a business to transport retail purchased cannabis and cannabis products to consumers. A wholesaler is a business that stores, buys and/or sells bulk cannabis and cannabis products. Meanwhile, a distributor transports bulk cannabis and cannabis products.
Recreational cannabis businesses may integrate vertically, meaning operators can hold any combination of a cultivator license, a manufacturer license, a retailer license, and a delivery service license simultaneously. Operators may also hold a wholesale and a distributor license simultaneously. All recreational license holders can have only one business in each class.
Cannabis retailers will not need to apply for a delivery license if they choose to deliver customers.
In addition to discussing the new license categories, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission is expected to discuss the expansion of edible cannabis products, approve more retail stores to open and an adjustment of the social equity excise fee at its next meeting monthly on Friday at 1 p.m.
All public meetings of the Cannabis Regulatory Commission are available via live stream or recorded on the commission’s YouTube channel.
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Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.