Ocean City lays claim to being a dry city despite the busy liquor stores at the two main entrances to the island.
Conservative Upper Township acknowledges its disdain for legal cannabis sales while approving the opening of a cannabis business at the border with Ocean City.
Americans decry the decaying of society for a range of reasons, while wealthy celebrities who can’t turn down a dollar shill for online casinos, encouraging us to skip the trip to our dying gambling Mecca a few miles north in Atlantic City, convincing us to instead bring gambling onto our phones. Losing money on virtual card games is advertised as our legitimate pastime.
The occasional office pool on the Super Bowl and collegiate basketball tournament has been superseded by being able to prop bet on the most minute aspect of sports (will the quarterback eat a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch?), keywords the president may utter (serious, profane or made up) or the latest Ukrainian city Russian will target with missiles and drones.
We readily accept things that probably should concern us.
How dry is Ocean City?
It’s a running joke among the locals. The town is considered dry based on the fact alcohol sales are not allowed. The lack of bars and restaurants selling alcohol does make the resort a more family-friendly place.
But the liquor stores happily deliver to the island when the residents and visitors haven’t stocked up enough before they cross the bridges. Supper clubs have found a way to allow people to bring their own bottles even though the citizenry overwhelmingly voted down BYOB not that many years ago. Alcohol can be served at functions as long as it’s not sold directly.
It is capitulation for public officials to tout this island as “dry” or to decry cannabis use then decide the money is just too good to turn down. We accept it because we agree or can’t be bothered to protest.
Upper Township’s mayor acknowledged that he didn’t support cannabis businesses, but reasoned that businesses from out of town deliver their products into town, so why shouldn’t Upper be the beneficiary of the expected $20,000 a month in tax revenue.
Upper Township Committee unanimously agreed. They have supported Boulevard Super Liquors on Roosevelt Boulevard using part of its building as that dispensary, pending the state’s approval.
That the liquor store sits close to Ocean City was going to happen one way or another, but they put it right next door.
Upper’s officials decreed a cannabis business was only allowed in the residentially unpopulated boulevard to the east of the Garden State Parkway. It’s as if the disdain for cannabis sales manifested itself by putting a dispensary at arm’s length — the farthest edge of Upper Township.
The strategic placement could have been in a building where it is easy on and easy off the parkway, going for a different clientele, but instead will be catering most prominently for the people headed directly into “dry” Ocean City.
Ocean City officials had a choice after New Jersey made cannabis sales legal. They high-mindedly voted not to allow cannabis sales on the island. Perhaps that was in keeping with the belief that because the resort is so dry, it should be pot-free as well. (What is that sour smell on the boardwalk wafting among the far more pleasant aromas of pizza and popcorn? Thank you, New Jersey Legislature, for making it harder to police public pot smoking than regular smoking. We won’t digress into the state handcuffing cops policing bad teen behavior.)
To be somewhat fair, is cannabis use worse than alcohol use? Probably not, given the latest research about the harm to our bodies even minor alcohol consumption apparently poses. The legalization gives kids a new, societally accepted option for mind-altering substances to use when they grow up. Who knows what future studies will determine.
To be somewhat fair to Upper Township officials, they know taking a moralist stand against cannabis sales and the message that sends to our youth is diluted by the readily available delivery into town from neighboring communities. As budgets get tighter, state aid shrinks and tax rates climb, a new revenue source becomes too appealing, no matter the source.
It is hard to understand the lure of prop bets or a slot machine on our phones. They go along with disclaimers about gambling addictions. Just like smokers had to read the warning they were buying cancer sticks disguised as cigarettes, the flashy gambling ads are warning us that continued use of their products is not good for us.
We must not be watching any warnings, for gambling, for alcohol, for cannabis. We’re becoming accepting of things that aren’t really true or aren’t really good for us. We decry the decay in society as we let it go on with barely a whimper.
David Nahan is editor and publisher of the Ocean City Sentinel, the Upper Township Sentinel and the Sentinel of Somers Point, Linwood and Northfield and the Cape May Star and Wave.