Toms River To Continue Ban On Recreational Cannabis Businesses

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River residents who were hoping the township would reconsider its ban on retail recreational cannabis businesses appear be out of luck, after the council introduced an ordinance earlier this week to rescind a sunset provision on the ban.

The ordinance, which is set for a second reading and final adoption at the Nov. 23 council meeting, rescinds the Dec. 31 sunset date that was put in place in July when the council passed its ban.

The sunset provision was put in place to allow a committee that included Toms River council members, representatives of the police department, the Ocean County Health Department and others to consider information on the potential for allowing some sort of business in the township.

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That possibility, however, was rejected Tuesday — a move that angered Councilwoman Laurie Huryk, who chaired the committee.

"We spent countless hours researching, educating one another, debating the issues," Huryk said. "This is a total lack of regard for not only my time and that of the volunteer citizens who gave their time ... and for the 64 percent of Toms River voters who voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana."

Huryk said the committee was set to release its recommendations, which were going to be to allow cultivation and manufacture of recreational marijuana, but not retail sales.

"If we're not going to honor our committees, I don't know why we have them," she said.

Council President Kevin Geoghegan said he was on the fence initially, but grew to oppose having recreational marijuana of any kind in the township because of conversations he had with people who he helped treat as part of his volunteer work with the Silverton First Aid Squad after they overdosed on other drugs in recent months.

"I asked them what they would have done differently," he said, and he said the reply he got from many of those patients was that they wished someone had paid attention when they were smoking marijuana, and held them accountable.

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