Recreational marijuana sales begin in New Jersey on Thursday, making cannabis legally available for nonmedical purposes in the New York City and Philadelphia areas for the first time.
Thirteen existing medical cannabis dispensaries in the Garden State were authorized earlier this month to serve all customers over the age of 21. According to state officials, 12 percent of eligible adults in the state, or approximately 836,000 people, will use recreational cannabis.
According to Adam Goers, senior vice president of corporate affairs at the cannabis company Columbia Care, recreational marijuana sales in New Jersey could reach $500 million this year. The company owns two of the dispensaries that will begin selling recreational marijuana on Thursday.
“It’s taken a long time. We’re ecstatic about it. “We’ve been preparing, and I think it’s going to show,” he said.
Marijuana remains a federally prohibited controlled substance, but its recreational use is legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group. In the Garden State, voters approved a referendum allowing recreational cannabis use in 2020, and lawmakers ratified enabling legislation last year.
New York and Connecticut also legalized recreational marijuana possession and use in 2021, but they have yet to complete the licensing process for retail stores. Pennsylvania legalizes medical marijuana but not recreational marijuana.
Because of its location, New Jersey will be able to capitalize on consumers from the nearby metro areas of Philadelphia and New York City. According to New Jersey regulators, there will be approximately 788,000 “tourism consumers” from neighboring states.
While the initial sales will take place in dispensaries that have been serving medical marijuana patients, the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission is reviewing additional applications with the goal of ensuring that future stores are owned by a more diverse group of people, according to CRC Executive Director Jeff Brown at a recent meeting. In addition, the CRC stated in a news release that the first 13 dispensaries will be evaluated on the diversity of their hiring and management.
Ami Kachalia, a campaign strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey who advocated for the drug’s legalization, said it was critical to ensure that those most affected by drug arrests could sell it legally.
Employers expressed concern that legalizing adult-use cannabis would reduce workplace safety, and they urged the CRC to establish guidelines for training people who would detect impaired employees.
“We cannot and should not wait for an accident to occur before the state takes action on workplace safety,” said Ray Cantor, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.
According to a CRC spokeswoman, companies can continue to drug test until regulations are issued, and there is “no credible data to suggest that cannabis legalization increases cannabis use in the workplace.”
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who campaigned on marijuana legalization when he first ran for office in 2017, said at a Tuesday event that he was still figuring out how he would commemorate the occasion—without getting high.
“It’s never been an energizing thing for me,” Mr. Murphy said during the news conference. “I’d show up with a shopping cart if we were legalizing Scotch.”