{"id":53979,"date":"2022-03-31T06:23:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T14:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/31\/new-jersey-marijuana-sales-delay-isnt-unusual-among-legalized-states-analysis-shows\/"},"modified":"2022-03-31T17:47:02","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T01:47:02","slug":"new-jersey-marijuana-sales-delay-isnt-unusual-among-legalized-states-analysis-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/31\/new-jersey-marijuana-sales-delay-isnt-unusual-among-legalized-states-analysis-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Marijuana Sales Delay Isn\u2019t Unusual Among Legalized States, Analysis Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this commission is doing remarkably well despite the setback last week, which I think a lot of people are frustrated by.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0delayed start to recreational marijuana sales\u00a0has spurred calls for inquiries from one of the state\u2019s most powerful lawmakers, but the nearly 17 months that have passed since New Jersey voters approved adult-use cannabis don\u2019t make New Jersey an outlier among states with legal weed.<\/p>\n

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana through referendums or legislation, and it took on average 16-and-a-half months to set up legal markets in the 12 states where sales have started. The median is slightly lower, at 14 months.<\/p>\n

Only four states\u2014Washington, Massachusetts, Alaska and Maine\u2014took longer to open their legal markets than New Jersey has taken.<\/p>\n

Still,\u00a0Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who championed marijuana legalization before ascending the ranks of Senate leadership, on Tuesday announced the launch of a special legislative committee to investigate why the launch of New Jersey\u2019s market is behind schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese delays are totally unacceptable,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWe need to get the legal marijuana market up and running in New Jersey. This has become a failure to follow through on the public mandate and to meet the expectations for new businesses and consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once it convenes, that panel will take testimony from commission officials and would-be cannabis operators.<\/p>\n

Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in February said recreational sales were just weeks away<\/a>, and he said the same last week after the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission rejected recreational sales applications\u00a0filed by eight medical dispensaries over concerns of a supply shortage.<\/p>\n

Those application denials came after the commission missed its self-imposed February 22 deadline to stand up a legal market. The commission did approve conditional licenses for 68 cultivators, manufacturers and labs at last week\u2019s meeting, and scheduled a special meeting for April 11.<\/p>\n

The cannabis commission could face trouble from the Assembly, too. Cecilia Williams, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), said the lower chamber leader shares Scutari\u2019s concerns and did not close the door on the prospect of a joint committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speaker has met with commissioners and high-level staff at the Cannabis Regulatory Commission as well as industry leaders to voice his frustrations,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe expects to see significant progress made so that businesses can begin opening their doors and has not ruled out joining the Senate in oversight hearings if clarity is not achieved at the commission\u2019s next meeting on April 11.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the states that have taken longer than New Jersey to implement their legal markets were hampered by delays, and the states that launched sales quickly faced shortages and ceded much of their markets to multistate operators. Murphy and New Jersey\u2019s regulators have said they want to avoid out-of-state operators taking over the market here.<\/p>\n

A Murphy spokesperson deferred comment to the commission. Its executive director, Jeff Brown, noted the commission is working to prepare medical marijuana dispensaries\u2014alternative treatment centers (ATCs)\u2014to expand and sell recreational cannabis while the adult-use market remains in limbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to help ATCs meet the criteria that ensures the needs of medicinal patients are met, and to ensure across all providers that there is not a strain on supply, that municipal compliance is satisfied, and that the market can open safely, and so that equity is prioritized,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

New Jersey\u2019s regulators have worried about equity in the state\u2019s cannabis sector. Enabling legislation\u2014signed into law by Murphy in February 2021\u2014requires the state set aside 30 percent of recreational marijuana licenses for women, disabled veterans, and people of color. Rules adopted by the commission also seek to ensure small operators\u2014and not multi-state corporations\u2014get a foothold in the state\u2019s legal market.<\/p>\n

Advocates don\u2019t appear to share Scutari\u2019s consternation over the delays, acknowledging that New Jersey\u2019s stricter licensing rules mean the commission has less latitude than similar bodies in other states.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what this commission has been charged to do, particularly as it relates to social equity and maintaining patient access and the short amount of time that they\u2019ve had to be in existence and form and develop this effort, I think this commission is doing remarkably well despite the setback last week, which I think a lot of people are frustrated by,\u201d said Bill Caruso, a lobbyist and longtime supporter of marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n

What happened in other states<\/h4>\n

In Massachusetts, a dearth of testing lab applications forced the state to delay legal marijuana sales by four months. It took the state two years to begin recreational sales after voters approved a legalization referendum.<\/p>\n

After Maine voters approved legalization, regulatory changes and opposition from then-Gov. Paul LePage (R) made the Pine Tree State\u2019s legal market take longer to erect than any other in the country. The state\u2019s legal market didn\u2019t open until four years after voters gave the green light.<\/p>\n

Washington, which was among the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use, also had to push back the launch of its legal market after denying licenses for cannabis growers and processors. Twenty months passed between voters approving legalization and sales beginning in the Evergreen State.<\/p>\n

Arizona, which stood up its legal market just two months after voters approved recreational sales at the polls in November 2020, allowed medical marijuana dispensaries to begin adult-use sales almost immediately, effectively leaving the market to a small number of corporate operators.<\/p>\n

Arizona opened social equity dispensary applications last June but isn\u2019t expected to approve applicants until later this year. The state saw some marijuana shortages shortly after greenlighting recreational sales.<\/p>\n

Illinois, which at seven months was the second fastest state to begin recreational sales, also saw corporations win large swaths of the marijuana market share. Shortages were more severe in the Land of Lincoln because the state approved fewer licenses for marijuana growers that were greenlit elsewhere.<\/p>\n

New Jersey\u2019s regulators have sought to prevent the legal market from straining the state\u2019s medical marijuana supply. They said last week the state is short about 100,000 pounds of marijuana to meet demand in both sectors.<\/p>\n

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

\n

South Carolina House Lawmakers Approve Senate-Passed Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill In Subcommittee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post New Jersey Marijuana Sales Delay Isn\u2019t Unusual Among Legalized States, Analysis Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: New Jersey Marijuana Sales Delay Isn\u2019t Unusual Among Legalized States, Analysis Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think this commission is doing remarkably well despite the setback last week, which I think a lot of people are frustrated by.\u201d By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor The\u00a0delayed start to recreational marijuana sales\u00a0has spurred calls for inquiries from one of the state\u2019s most powerful lawmakers, but the nearlyContinue 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":[1335],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53979"}],"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=53979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53980,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53979\/revisions\/53980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}