Brick Councilwoman Rips Activists Over Marijuana Song

BRICK, NJ — A pair of marijuana activists who sought to blast Brick Township officials over the town's recreational marijuana ban got an earful from Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero at a recent council meeting.

The incident at the June 11 council meeting came during public comment. Lefty Grimes of Bayonne, who has been in attendance at a number of towns' meetings where the sale of marijuana has been discussed, got up to speak and criticized Brick's council as being one of many in the state to approve a ban.

"God has a special place in his heart for the sick, the dying and the disabled," Grimes said, and called towns that have banned all sales of marijuana — both recreational and medical — ignorant.

"All the ignorant towns in New Jersey wrote this song," Grimes said, and began singing, "You can't get no weed here," and rattled off a list of the towns where the sale has been completely banned.

Grimes' list did not include Brick, however. The township's ordinance passed earlier this year banned only the sale, cultivation, and manufacture of marijuana related to recreational use.

Towns on the list Grimes sang — including nearby Point Pleasant Beach — have banned the sales of both medical and recreational marijuana.

That irony didn't stop Grimes from singing, however, and it was a line in his song directed at cancer patients that struck a nerve with Pontoriero.

As Grimes sang, "Keep your cancer home, dear," Pontoriero sat up and looked at him. After the song, she spoke up, and called the song offensive, saying it implied the township has banned the use of medical marijuana.

"It's offensive to me as a Stage 4 cancer victim," said Pontoriero, who has been battling a rare oral cancer for two years. "I don't want anyone watching who may be a cancer victim to think they cannot partake in medical marijuana." You can watch the exchange below; it begins 1 hour, 49 minutes into the meeting.

The township so far has not banned the sale or production of medical marijuana, despite intense lobbying by a group of residents who had been fighting a now-withdrawn proposal for a medical marijuana dispensary on Adamston Road.

And despite assertions at the meeting, the Township Council did not make any ruling regarding a proposal by 385 Adamston LLC to open a medical marijuana dispensary. The owners of the property were not among the six chosen statewide in November in a new round of licensing proposals, and the zoning board application was beset by delays over room capacity and notification issues. Land use applications are decided by the planning or zoning boards.

The 385 Adamston LLC owners withdrew the dispensary proposal in March, switching first to a plan to grow marijuana for medical purposes, then to growing hemp, and lastly to growing lettuce — all of which continue to be fought by the residents who opposed the dispensary.

Those residents continue to press the council on the issue, demanding both a ban on the sale of medical marijuana in the township and demanding a zoning change that would effectively ban the use of property zoned rural residential from being used to grow marijuana for medical purposes.

The council has not taken up either request.

The township's Board of Adjustment did rule in late May that the proposal by 385 Adamston LLC to grow lettuce in a controlled growing facility at the site would have to go before the zoning board for approval. The board voted unanimously that farming lettuce by growing it aquaponically was not considered a common or customary form of farming.

The residents who've been fighting the dispensary proposal have criticized the lettuce proposition, calling it a smokescreen to get the building they want — a 48,000-square-foot facility — approved. The dispensary, proposed last year, has become a flashpoint in the township debate over marijuana, which still remains illegal to use recreationally throughout New Jersey despite efforts to legalize it.

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