The commission missed another self-imposed deadline March 15, the 90-day target date to finish reviewing applications for potential adult-use cannabis cultivators.
During the commission’s last regular meeting, executive director Jeff Brown asked for patience in the review process, which has become more time consuming than expected because of a decision to allow applicants to amend their submissions if found to be flawed, The Press of Atlantic City reported.
“Here we are, moving through hundreds of applications, ready to kick off this legalized market under an entirely new framework,” Brown said. “We are making tremendous progress.”
The cultivation application deadline isn’t the first target CRC officials have missed. The Garden State also missed a Sept. 18 deadline to begin accepting and processing business license applications from potential cultivators, manufacturers and retailers, as well as a Feb. 22 deadline to allow operational medical dispensaries to begin serving adult-use shoppers.
Brown said last month that one of the factors holding up the retail launch includes a lack of confirmation from local municipalities, where officials must provide in writing that they support the medical cannabis cultivators and dispensaries in their communities transitioning to the adult-use market, NJ.com reported.
There are 11 companies with 23 retail locations selling cannabis to the state’s 120,000-plus registered patients, according to CRC. As of earlier this month, the commission had received eight requests for the expanded certification that will allow medical cannabis dispensaries to sell to all adults, according to Brown.
But whether medical cannabis operators have enough supply to serve an adult-use market remains an uncertainty, putting more pressure on CRC officials to finish the review process for adult-use cultivation license applicants.
Nonetheless, Gov. Phil Murphy projected last month that New Jersey medical cannabis dispensaries would make the transition to launch adult-use retail operations in March.
“If I had to predict, we are within weeks—I would hope in March—you would see implicit movement on the medical dispensaries, some of them being able to sell recreational,” Murphy said during his radio show on WBGO in Newark. “They’ve got to prove they’ve got the supply for their medical customers.”
His remarks came more than a year after New Jersey voters approved adult-use cannabis via Question 1 in the November 2020 election.
Brown is expected to provide further updates during the next CRC meeting at 1 p.m. March 24, which will be held remotely.
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