Brick Council To Weigh Ban On Recreational Marijuana

BRICK, NJ — When Gov. Phil Murphy took office in January 2017, residents demanded to know what Brick Township officials were going to do about marijuana.

The governor's promise to legalize the use of recreational marijuana has made residents across the state call for towns to ban it. But Brick officials said they wanted to hold off on making any decisions until there was some clear information on where the state was headed on the topic.

Town officials have apparently decided the time to act is now: an ordinance is on the agenda for a first reading at Tuesday's Township Council meeting to ban recreational marijuana in the Brick.

Full details on the proposed ordinance were not immediately available, but the title indicates it would ban "the retail sale, cultivation, manufacturing and testing of marijuana products for recreational use" in the township.

The issue has been heated in Brick Township in recent months, amid the controversy over a proposal to turn the former Ocean First bank on Adamston Road into a medical marijuana dispensary.

That proposal has been on hold since January, when required meeting notifications did not get to all the neighbors within a 200-foot radius of the site with sufficient time before a special meeting of the Board of Adjustment. The cancellation of that meeting, which happened just hours beforehand, angered zoning board chairman Harvey Langer, who criticized John Paul Doyle, the attorney for applicant Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care. Read more: Canceled Dispensary Hearing Draws Brick Zoning Board Chair's Ire

Opponents of the proposal have repeatedly expressed concern that the plan for the dispensary was to turn it into a recreational marijuana source, despite formal statements by Anne Davis, one of the principals of Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care, stipulating it would only be for medical marijuana.

They also have pressed Mayor John Ducey to take a stance on both recreational marijuana and on the dispensary. Ducey has not spoken on the dispensary, which has merely stoked rumors surrounding the proposal. Ducey's brother-in-law is the security director for Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care.

Township officials have refused to give opinions about controversial projects since the township was sued and was later forced to pay a $237,500 settlement involving a controversial application for a church on Brick Boulevard. The lawsuit claimed a councilman's comments influenced the zoning board's decision to reject the application.

The council meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday.