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The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved more than 100 licenses Thursday and cited municipal approvals, lack of site control and access to finances as the largest delay factors in expanding the legal cannabis marketplace.
Before applicants receive full licensure by the commission, they have to gain the approval of a municipality, which usually involves them having to lobby their local city council, a process that can be rife with local politics and maneuvering.
The commission broke down the cited reasons for delays by type and percentage with municipal approval delays at 64%, site control at 60% and funding at 19%. Applicants throughout the industry have also noted they often deal with a mixture of these factors and not just one at a time.
For example, site control and real estate are closely associated with municipal control since all sites must be approved by local zoning and planning boards, something that is itself a part of the overall local approval process.
Commission Chairwoman Dianna Houenou called on applicants to also voice concerns to their state legislators on how the market can be better.
In addition, she noted delays were coming from municipalities that had put in place their own local cannabis approval boards.
“We encourage our municipalities to keep things as simple as possible,” Houenou said.
A retail applicant from Elizabeth, Greelensky Charles, spoke to the board during the public comment portion about municipal barriers.
By way of legislation and as an ode to home rule, the commission has limited authority in how municipalities set up their licensing process and fees.
Charles acknowledged those limitations while simultaneously calling on the CRC to investigate bad actors on the applicant side that engaged in questionable behavior to get municipal approval.
“What is supposed to be an objective evaluation often feels highly subjective, leaving many social equity and diversely owned applicants feeling disillusioned,” he said. “It pains me to say as a minority entrepreneur, I sometimes feel like the state is catfishing us. The promise of a more inclusive industry seems elusive when faced with the harsh realities of local authorities practicing cronyism.”
Before that, Commissioner Krista Nash called for additional demographic data on the which license types were facing hurdles, including social equity applicants like Charles.
Nash and Commissioner Charles Barker also gave updates on the commission’s safe-use education efforts.
“We are coming from an unbiased nonjudgmental place here,” Nash said.
The campaign aims to target teens, parents, nursing and pregnant individuals, drivers, inexperienced cannabis users and experienced cannabis users.
“A lot of the content is going to be common everyday language and tone,” Barker said.
The public comment portion of the meeting included multiple executives from TerrAscend who decried the CRC’s previous decision to fine them at a previous meeting over failure to provide patient access. The company argued their actions were borne of of human error and not ill intent.
“None of those honest human mistakes were completed for any financial benefits for TerrAscend and all of those patients ended up getting their medication,” said its CEO, Ziad Ghanem.
During Thursday’s meeting TerrAscend received another patient access violation from the commission.
Brown recommended no monetary fine since the violation had still taken place before corrective actions had been implemented by the company.
Nash said that Brown’s staff investigator suggested otherwise.
“The investigator’s report — his words strongly encouraged the commission to consider sanctions and I’m wondering, taking that into account, why would you not?” asked Nash to Brown.
“Since that initial round of activity, they’ve largely been compliant,” Brown replied.
When an agency technical error prevented commissioners from viewing documents related to the matter the commissioners decided to table the matter for their December meeting. There is no scheduled meeting in November.
In other cannabis related news:
- Gubernatorial candidate and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is pushing back against guidance that allows cops to smoke cannabis off-duty and indicated he wanted the ban extended to other professions. It comes amid criticism and another lawsuit about whether the methods police use to measure drug impairment are scientifically valid. Criminal defense critics have pointed out that the same method the police use to prosecute impaired driving is the same protocol they have reservations about using on their own personnel if they are accused of being impaired while on the job.
- The Commission is seeking public comment on its rules that expanded the types of edibles. The comment period runs from on Oct. 16 and until Dec. 15. “We believe that cannabis edibles have the potential to provide an alternative and convenient method for adults to access cannabis, and the proposed regulations aim to establish clear guidelines for their responsible production, labeling, and sale,” Brown said in a press release this week.
At the meeting Brown announced more than 60 dispensaries were currently open in 18 counties.
The approved licenses were a mixture of conditional, annual and expanded licenses.
A large portion of the approved licenses were conditional, meaning applicants still had to gain local municipal approval before they could be issued a full license.
More than 1,500 licenses have been issued thus far, Brown said.
“We’re still making great progress there,” Brown said.
Jelani Gibson is content lead for NJ Cannabis Insider. He may be reached at jgibson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jelanigibson1 and on LinkedIn.