The NJ Senate Judiciary Committee recently passed a bill 11-0 allowing certain medical cannabis dispensaries to operate 2 satellite dispensary locations.
Valley Wellness dispensary CEO Sarah Trent and Mike Burry of the UFCW union were said to be in favor.
“This just creates parity with the ordinal license holders,” bill sponsor State Senator Vin Gopal (D-11-Monmouth) argued.
He seemed to allude to the 2019-2021 medical dispensary license winners needing help.
NJ cannabis experts often refer to them as the 2019 winners. However, it was 29 months after the license lottery began that it was concluded in December 2021. COVID and a lawsuit delayed it.
They will now be allowed to open 3 dispensary locations, which is as many as the 1st 12 NJ cannabis license winners were initially allowed. Those licenses have been mostly gobbled up by large corporate, largely White male-owned Multi-State Operators (MSOs).
Gopal is the only sponsor of the bill S3486 in the State Senate. Usually, you need more to get a bill passed. However, along with being a homegrow legalization champion, Gopal holds a senior leadership position as NJ Senate Whip.
NJ Senate President Nick Scutari (D-22-Union) was the Whip in 2021 when then-President Steve Sweeney was defeated for re-election.
In the Assembly, the dispensary location bill counterpart A 4947 has Assemblymembers Reginald Atkins (D-20-Union), Shanique Speight (D-29-Essex), and Luanne M. Peterpaul (D-11-Monmouth) as the primary sponsors and Margie Donlon (D-11-Monmouth) as a co-sponsor.
UPDATE: The bill passed the Assembly Oversight Committee on June 12th.
NJ Medical Dispensary Location Issues
The 2019-2021 winners were the only round of licenses issued under the Jake Honig Medical Act of 2019. It was signed into law that summer after a more comprehensive effort, including adult-use legalization, failed that spring.
The 2019-2021 dispensary license winners had a range of unique issues they had to overcome.
The State provided little guidance on many questions, to the frustrations of many.
Many of them had to pay thousands of dollars for months to maintain their locations. Others had agreements for locations that ultimately did not end up working due to the length of waiting, better opportunities, or town politics.
In 2022, MSOs with large amounts of money were chomping at the bit and using connections to lobby politicians to get into adult-use cannabis sales as soon as possible. So, the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC) made it expensive to do so.
However, the 2019-21021 smaller, local companies have noted this has made it expensive for them too.
Valley Wellness dispensary was the first dispensary license winner to open up in December 2022 in Raritan Township in Central Jersey. A range of them slowly opened up afterward.
However, Heady NJ heard that some of them will likely never open.
At least one sold its license to a small MSO.
Cannabis dispensary chains, official and de facto, are sprouting up throughout New Jersey owned by MSOs and some of the local adult-use cannabis companies with the means to do so, using a range of options.
NJ Medical Marijuana Background
The first six medical marijuana licenses New Jersey issued included three dispensary locations, as well as growing, manufacturing, wholesaling, and distribution operations to be vertically integrated. They were issued during the Administration of former Governor Chris Christie (R). He held many anti-marijuana views. So, it seems he set up a system that was difficult to navigate on purpose.
The next 6 were issued in 2018 under incumbent Governor Phil Murphy (D). They were all the same sort since laws had to be passed to establish new sorts of licenses.
