Some of the roughly 400 municipalities in New Jersey that opted out of hosting the adult-use cannabis industry ahead of an August 2021 deadline to do so have since changed their minds.
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Roughly 29% of the state’s municipalities now allow some form of adult-use business to operate within their jurisdictions after 35 towns that had previously banned all types of cannabis businesses have since approved ordinances that allow at least one type of adult-use operation to set up shop, according to an app.com report.
Twenty-two municipalities that had previously opted out of hosting any form of adult-use cannabis business now allow dispensaries, the news outlet reported, while three other towns that had initially allowed other types of businesses—but not retailers—have since passed ordinances to allow adult-use cannabis retail.
In addition, 10 municipalities that previously banned all types of adult-use cannabis operations have since decided to host other forms of cannabis businesses, but not dispensaries, app.com reported.
New Jersey voters approved an adult-use legalization measure in the November 2020 election, and Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation in February 2021 to implement an adult-use cannabis market in the state.
Included in that law was a six-month deadline for New Jersey’s municipalities to opt out of hosting adult-use businesses or pass ordinances regulating the industry within their borders, but the towns were not bound to their initial decision, app.com reported.
For many municipalities, the ability to initially opt out of the adult-use cannabis industry offered local officials time to review the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission’s (CRC) first set of rules and regulations, which were published just two days ahead of the deadline for municipalities to opt out of the program.
It is unclear when New Jersey will launch commercial adult-use cannabis sales; last week, the CRC approved 68 conditional adult-use cultivation and manufacturing licenses but delayed the approval of eight medical cannabis dispensaries that want to expand to serve the broader adult-use market.