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A new proposal would remove a hard limit on the number of pot shops allowed in the state should legislators choose to legalize weed.
While New Jersey has long been expected to be one of the more conservative states when it comes to the number of marijuana dispensaries, the new measure would allow regulators to adjust the number as needed to meet demand. This change is the latest in a monthslong back and forth among lawmakers.
Weedmaps, basically the Yelp of pot shops, says New Jersey needs at least several hundred dispensaries to meet demand. Others, including the state senator who has led the way on legal weed, have sought to limit the number of dispensaries, saying he doesn’t want a pot shop on every corner.
Removing the cap on dispensaries is just one of the changes proposed by Assemblyman Jamel Holley, D-Union, to a recreational marijuana bill introduced last month by state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, also D-Union.
Scutari’s bill was met with pushback from several groups, which said it didn’t do enough to address many of the larger social justice issues that New Jersey faces. So for the past few weeks, Holley and other lawmakers have been writing amendments to that bill, which were reported exclusively in NJ Cannabis Insider on Thursday.
“These amendments can take it to the next level,” Holley said, adding that his changes could be plugged right into Scutari’s bill. Holley thinks these changes will win enough votes to pass recreational marijuana in New Jersey.
Here are the biggest changes Holley proposed:
No limits on dispensaries
Scutari’s bill capped the number of dispensaries at 218 — 98 medical marijuana dispensaries and 120 recreational shops. Holley’s plan wouldn’t set a cap at all, allowing state regulators to determine how many marijuana retail locations there would be based on the demand.
Credit: nj.com
Easier to clear criminal records
If marijuana were to become legal in New Jersey, people with low-level marijuana possession convictions would be eligible to have those charges cleared from their records. But Holley wants to make it easier for people.
Borrowing from a plan proposed by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, Holley is calling for expedited expungements and a program to help people get their records cleared.
Previous legalization bills have only said that people would be eligible to apply to have their convictions cleared.
Mandatory social equity
In his most recent legal weed bill, Scutari introduced the idea of social impact zones. These are struggling areas of the state that have been hard hit by marijuana arrests. The idea was to encourage people from those areas to participate in the marijuana industry.
Holley’s plan builds on this by requiring that a certain percentage of retail licenses be given to people from the social impact zones but does not say what that percentage would be.
Clear plans for tax revenue
Previous legal weed bills have said that the body created to regulate the marijuana industry, the Division of Marijuana Enforcement, would be totally funded by tax revenue from weed sales. But they didn’t lay out what would be done with the rest of the tax revenue. Holley’s proposal does that. Here’s the breakdown:
20 percent would go to the New Jersey Public Education Trust Fund.
15 percent would go to youth drug prevention and education.
15 percent would go toward mental health counseling and drug prevention.
15 percent would go toward funding homeless prevention programs.
The remainder would be used for the Justice Reinvestment Community Grants Fund, which would provide money to communities afflicted with disproportionately high marijuana arrest rates.
Bans vertical integration
New Jersey’s six existing medical marijuana businesses are required to be vertically integrated, meaning they grow, process and sell marijuana as a single entity.
In other legal weed plans, companies could become vertically integrated, as long as they secured the separate licenses. But Holley has proposed banning vertical integration altogether, meaning a company that got a license to grow marijuana couldn’t get a license to sell it.
Holley said he believes this is a way to ensure that mom-and-pop businesses can have a place in the industry.
What does this mean for legalization?
Lawmakers are widely expected to be called back to Trenton later this summer to consider legal weed. Holley said these amendments are ready to be plugged into Scutari’s most recent recreational bill, rather than them be written in a separate bill.
After Scutari introduced the bill last month, New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, an advocacy group, said it didn’t do enough for social justice. Holley said these amendments should change that.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, has said he intends to move marijuana legislation soon, and the governor has called on lawmakers to get a bill to his desk before the end of the year.
