NEW JERSEY'S WEED INDUSTRY IS IN A 'DOOM LOOP', TRADE GROUP SAYS

What You Should Know

• New Jersey's legal marijuana industry is in a "doom loop," the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association says in a new report.
• The group says

  The group says issues including slow business licensing by the state's Cannabis Regulatory Commission, unregulated products such as delta-8 THC, and lack of enforcement against the illicit market are causing the legal market to stagnate.

• By NJCTA's estimation, the state could be losing as much as $1.8 million in sales tax revenue a year for every store that faces a delayed opening.

Just more than a year after beginning recreational cannabis sales, New Jersey’s legal weed industry is in a “doom loop” of slow licensing and a lack of enforcement that is causing it to stagnate, a marijuana trade group says.

The New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association, which represents the majority of cultivators and dispensaries in New Jersey, issued a report Tuesday placing blame for the state’s slow-growing marijuana industry on the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the agency that establishes and enforces regulations governing legal marijuana. The CRC, the report said, is “hindering the market’s potential” due to a protracted licensing process.

“We’re advocating starting with the removal of the bureaucracy,” said Todd Johnson, the group’s executive director. “We are making it difficult right at the point of entry for no reason.”

New Jersey could be losing as much as $1.8 million a year in potential tax revenue per location, as a result of delayed retail store openings, the report concludes. In addition, the NJCTA points to the proliferation of unregulated hemp-derived cannabinoids and the state’s minimal enforcement against illicit operators as reasons for slow industry growth.

The CRC has received 2,177 applications since it opened up the process for marijuana business licenses in December 2021. Of those, 1,399 applications have been approved, and about 400 are being processed, according to CRC executive director Jeff Brown.

“We’ve been very clear with applicants about what we expect timelines to be,” Brown said. “We understand that business owners have to make decisions, and we try to be up front with expectations so that people can plan accordingly.”

Typically, licenses are approved within three to six months, Brown said. By law, the CRC is supposed to approve conditional license applications within 30 days, and annual license applications within 90 days. But the CRC is able to extend the deadline, often due to the sheer number of applications.

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