{"id":53334,"date":"2022-03-04T09:08:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T17:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/new-jersey-regulators-get-input-on-how-to-spend-marijuana-revenue\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T13:45:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T21:45:45","slug":"new-jersey-regulators-get-input-on-how-to-spend-marijuana-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/new-jersey-regulators-get-input-on-how-to-spend-marijuana-revenue\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Regulators Get Input On How To Spend Marijuana Revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding for law enforcement under the guise of community reinvestment is not what we are looking for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Dana DiFillip, New Jersey Monitor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expungement clinics. School buses. Wheelchair ramps. Cannabis community centers. Training for rookie entrepreneurs. Grants and no-interest loans.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission heard all sorts of ideas Wednesday night from 15 people during an hourlong virtual public hearing held to solicit input for how the state should spend tax revenue from the\u00a0new recreational marijuana market\u00a0when sales eventually begin.<\/p>\n

The commission also heard plenty of ideas on how they should not spend the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding for law enforcement under the guise of community reinvestment is not what we are looking for,\u201d said Ami Kachalia, a campaign strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. \u201cWe want real community reinvestment that supports the kinds of needs\u2014things like social services and harm reduction and educational support and economic development\u2014that truly increase access to opportunity for New Jerseyans and help communities thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

When lawmakers legalized recreational cannabis a year ago\u2014following voter approval in November 2020\u2014they decreed 70 percent of revenue raised from the recreational market should go to \u201csocial equity investments\u201d in \u201cimpact zones,\u201d meaning socially and economically disadvantaged communities that have been most harmed by the failed war on drugs.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s meeting, intended for North Jersey residents, was the first of three virtual regional hearings<\/a> scheduled to give the public a say in how marijuana proceeds\u2014from what\u2019s known as the Social Equity Excise Fee\u2014could be used to better their communities. The other two, for Central and South Jersey residents, will run from 7 to 9 PM the next two Wednesdays.<\/p>\n

\n

Commissioner Charles Barker kicked off the first hearing with a bit of a pep talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine your neighborhood with more\u2014thriving with job opportunities, business development, green spaces and open playing fields for children, improved housing,\u201d Barker said. \u201cThe list goes on and on when it comes to the opportunities and changes that can be made for past, present, and future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ticked off the restorative justice initiatives marijuana money has supported in other states and cities that legalized cannabis: a reparations homeownership program for Black residents in Evanston, Illinois, grants to support community groups serving harmed neighborhoods in California, and public schools in Colorado.<\/p>\n

The ideas New Jersey residents offered up Wednesday night were equally varied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask 10 people what is social equity, you\u2019ll get 10 different answers,\u201d warned Hasaan Austin, one of the first speakers.<\/p>\n

Joe Johnson of Newark urged the commission to give or loan \u201csignificant funding\u201d to applicants from impact zones, saying other states that failed to do so fell short in their social justice goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve seen over the last decade, other states have propped industries up without thinking of equity at the forefront, only to realize four or five years later that they\u2019ve created an industry that is monopolized by wealthy white people and anybody who\u2019s a multi-state operator,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe have enough experience from other states to not make the same mistakes here and make sure there is initial funding to really even the playing field and help local entrepreneurs get over the financial hurdle that exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian Velasquez, who lives in Dover, said marijuana proceeds should support real estate assistance for applicants who have trouble securing a business location because of municipal restrictions. He also suggested using it to support a cannabis community center, public schools, and school buses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even have buses here. We have kids in elementary school walking in the snow and rain to school,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>\n

Kieshia Bowman, a community organizer from Newark, urged commissioners to earmark money for\u00a0expungement clinics, free education for the community, and technical assistance programs for Black women who are entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n

Edward \u201cLefty\u201d Grimes, a disability rights activist with the group Sativa Cross, urged commissioners not to forget about the needs of the disabled community, including wheelchair access.<\/p>\n

The commission also heard plenty of advice.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Colbert, formerly an editor with The Leaf Online, warned commissioners not to set taxes too high, because cannabis businesses in his home state, California, \u201care honestly dying under the taxes. It\u2019s hard for them to be competitive with the underground, unregulated market.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Jersey officials in 2021 set an unofficial target for dispensaries to be up and running by last month. The state missed that deadline though, and commission officials have been careful not to commit to an opening date, even as Gov. Phil Murphy has. In a monthly call-in radio show last week,\u00a0the governor estimated\u00a0sales would start this month.<\/p>\n

Medical marijuana has been legal in New Jersey for a decade.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

U.S. Senate Candidate Gary Chambers Visits Drive-Thru Marijuana Dispensary In Follow-Up To Blunt-Smoking Ad<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post New Jersey Regulators Get Input On How To Spend Marijuana Revenue<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: New Jersey Regulators Get Input On How To Spend Marijuana Revenue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFunding for law enforcement under the guise of community reinvestment is not what we are looking for.\u201d By Dana DiFillip, New Jersey Monitor Expungement clinics. School buses. Wheelchair ramps. Cannabis community centers. Training for rookie entrepreneurs. Grants and no-interest loans. The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission heard all sorts ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53335,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334\/revisions\/53335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}