Are you looking to set up a business in New Jersey to deliver, cultivate, manufacture or sale marijuana? Applications are finally opening up for licenses.

Applications are finally opening up in New Jersey for marijuana businesses related to adult recreational use.

By N.A. Pagliara, Esquire of Pagliara Law Group, P.A. posted in Marijuana Law Blog, on Wednesday, November 11, 2021.

JERSEY CITY—  After waiting for years, business start ups and entrepreneurs are so close to being able to enter into an untapped market and industry. Finally, the state will begin accepting license applications next month.

It has been months since adult recreational use marijuana was legalized in New Jersey. The Cannabis Regulatory Commission has been meeting once a month and it is about to happen finally. The long awaited time that you can apply for one of the 6 licenses is upon us.

Have you dreamt about wanting to set up an Uber style delivery service to customers homes. The time is that much closer. The CRC finally approved the dates for the applications.

The Commission will officially begin and open accepting applications for marijuana cultivation centers, manufacturers and testing laboratories on Dec. 15.

Applications for recreational marijuana dispensaries will open up on on March 15 not to be confused with current medical dispensaries.

Applications for marijuana distributors, wholesalers, delivery companies or medical marijuana dispensaries looking to convert to recreational sales will not be accepted until a later date.

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission has not provided an estimate on when sales can begin. 

There is no deadlines of which the license applications must be completed unlike medical marijuana applications previously handled by the Department of Health.

The commission can only issue 37 licenses for cannabis cultivators prior to February 2023, there is no cap on the number of licenses the commission can award to manufacturers, testing laboratories or dispensaries. 

There is a prioritization process regulators have set out to use to determine which applications are looked at first.

“Equity” applicants, filed by those who have been convicted of marijuana crimes or live in economically disadvantaged areas, been convicted for marijuana charges, are placed at the front of the line, followed by applications with diverse ownership and those located in impact zones. Impact zones are towns or cities with large populations who also have high rates of crime, unemployment and a history of marijuana possession arrests.

Within each category, conditional and microbusiness applications will be considered before standard, annual license applications. Conditional applicants are entrepreneurs who have a business plan but require state approval before bringing on investors or winning approval from a local municipality.

Microbusiness licenses are awarded with restrictions on the number of employees and how much cannabis can be grown or sold as a way for entrepreneurs without a lot of capital to get their foot in the door.

Conditional applicants are expected to at some point convert to a standard, annual license. Microbusiness license holders can but are not required to convert to an annual license. 

The CRC in the past month issued licenses to 14 medical marijuana cultivators, of which includes four vertically integrated permits. These allow cultivation, manufacturing and sale of medical marijuana. 

The commission is expected to issue more permits for manufacturing, sale and delivery of medical marijuana in the coming months, as officials have remained steadfast that medical marijuana dispensaries won’t be allowed to sell legal weed for recreational use only after patients needs are met.

The regulations released Thursday largely center around what will be required of the CRC and applicants looking for a cannabis license, particularly about the commission’s process for handling “priority review” license applications.

Those priority review licenses will include applications filed by:

• Applicants from areas qualified as low-income, at 80% of the median income, or with a past marijuana offense; 
• Minority, women or disabled veteran applicants; 
• Applicants looking to hire from or open a cannabis business in one of 20 “impact zones.”

Tags and Topics: Cannabis, Marijuana Law, Hem, Business Law, Criminal Defense

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