TRENTON — The state Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) has approved 505 applications for businesses, including 192 conditional licenses in the first week of September.
A conditional license gives applicants more time to get property or municipal approval but does not allow the business to operate.
CRC Executive Director Jeff Brown said the CRC had received 1,300 cannabis business applications as of Sept. 7. He said only 88 had yet to move forward to a completeness review.
The CRC sent 932 “cure letters” explaining to applicants how to correct their application for approval, Brown said.
He said the commission launched a new patient registry last week replacing a 10-year-old system. New patients no longer will have to wait an identification card to purchase cannabis. Instead, they will be allowed to use their authorization from a physician after creating an account in the system and going to a dispensary to make an initial purchase, he said.
Brown said compliance and investigations are a core function of the CRC. He said inspections are conducted prior to licensing a dispensary and the CRC conducts periodic site visits that include collecting samples of cannabis for testing, spot checks for security, review of inventory management and investigation of any complaints.
Workplace guidance
The CRC has released cannabis workplace impairment guidance. It states employers should have in place processes for establishing reasonable suspicion of impairment.
“The statute says employers can no longer take adverse action against employees simply because there are cannabis metabolites in that person’s bodily fluids,” Brown said. “But they can develop reasonable evidence using objective means to determine that somebody is reasonably suspected of being impaired while at work.”
A cognitive impairment test may be used, he said. An employer may designate a staff member to be responsible for assisting with determinations related to impairment. Brown said the staff member should have training related to determining impairment such as working in human resources.
“We make it very clear that the new law of the land is that employers cannot, unless they meet a certain carve out for federal contracts, take adverse action against an employee simply based on the presence of cannabis metabolites in their blood,” he said.
More information is available under business resources at nj.gov/cannabis.
Wesley McWhite, CRC director of inclusion and diversity, said of the 192 applications for consideration, 91 were minority-owned, 10 were disabled veteran-owned and 97 were women-owned. Some awardees hold certifications in multiple categories.
The approvals included cultivators, manufacturers and retailers. Two area applicants, Shorehouse Canna and Potent Petals, were not among the approvals. Both applicants previously told the Sentinel they expect to open in spring 2023.
The CRC granted 45-day extensions to conditional license holders given the challenges of receiving municipal approvals and finding real estate, Brown said. The first conditional licenses issued were due to expire Oct. 1.
CRC Director Charles Barker said expanded ATCs as a whole were not upholding their commitments to patient access, social equity and collective bargaining agreements.
“This must change,” he said.
Barker said more than $100 million in revenue has been generated since the start of legal cannabis sales in April. He said there are not enough connections to local communities that have been most affected by the failed war on drugs and not enough partnerships with organizations that assist those communities.
During public comment, Buddy Greenberg said the CRC has been slow in getting new businesses licensed and thus is harming social equity, diversity and small business applicants.
“The adult-use market is an oligopoly of eight MSOs (Multiple State Operators) not even from New Jersey who had the political clout to get their ATCs expanded to adult use ahead of everyone else,” Greenberg said. “Those guys got fast-tracked and opened within two weeks of the New Jersey Senate hearing.”
He said no one else in New Jersey has been granted an annual license to operate in the adult-use market. He said the CRC has granted only conditional licenses.
By JACK FICHTER/Sentinel staff