5 New Medical Marijuana Grow Businesses Coming To Central Jersey

NEW JERSEY — Five new medical marijuana-grow businesses are coming to Central New Jersey — but it's currently unknown which towns they will open in.

Last Friday, Oct. 15, the state's Cannabis Regulatory Commission granted licenses to a total of 10 new marijuana cultivation businesses to grow marijuana for medical use only: Three will open in North Jersey, five will open in Central Jersey and two were approved for South Jersey.

Also on Friday, the commission approved four licenses to businesses to not only grow, but also manufacture and sell medicinal pot. Thus, an additional four medical marijuana retail shops will be opening in New Jersey, but those locations are also unknown.

So in total, the state just approved licenses for 14 new medical marijuana businesses to open in New Jersey.

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission, or CRC, stressed that these licenses are to grow marijuana or sell for medical use only. The chair of the commission said supply cannot keep up with demand for medicinal pot in New Jersey.

“The current alternative treatment centers have not kept pace with patient need,” said CRC Chairwoman Dianna Houenou. “We constantly hear from patients that prices are too high and that there are too few dispensaries with too few product options. The situation has not changed with the legalization of recreational cannabis. Our priority is to our patients and increasing the planned number of medicinal cannabis operators in the market will greatly benefit them.”

Currently, there are twelve sites in New Jersey that grow or sell marijuana to patients for medical use. They serve about 118,882 medicinal cannabis patients in New Jersey.

The CRC regulates where marijuana-based businesses can open in New Jersey, and how many new businesses can open at at time.

These 14 approved applicants have 20 days to confirm their business locations. So the towns where they seek to open may be available after that 20-day period, said Toni-Anne Blake, a spokeswoman for the CRC.

A number of Central Jersey towns have passed laws restricting where or even if marijuana businesses can open:

• In June, Woodbridge said only the town's existing medical marijuana shop on Rt. 1 can sell pot, preventing any new pot shop from opening.
• That same week, South Amboy said it would be seeking to ban any and all marijuana shops/weed businesses from opening in town, including medical marijuana.
• South Brunswick similarly banned any marijuana business from opening, including medical.
• Towns like Piscataway, Middletown, Bridgewater and Old Bridge have either discussed or passed similar pot shop bans.
• East Brunswick banned recreational shops this year, but said medicinal marijuana stores are OK.

However, other large Central Jersey towns, like Edison and New Brunswick, have not discussed any type of ban.

In fact, Edison appears to welcome the new industry, saying the town will permit up to 10 marijuana businesses to open. Aberdeen said it would welcome marijuana cultivation businesses.

In February of this year Gov. Phil Murphy signed several bills into law that officially make adult recreational use of marijuana legal, and decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession in New Jersey.

The 10 applicants New Jersey approved to grow medical marijuana only:

• Bloom Medicinals of PA
• CYOUR NJ
• Garden State Releaf
• GCSS
• Green Medicine
• Hillview Med
• The NAR Group
• NJ Nectar Ventures
• Noble Valley
• ZY Labs

The four applicants the state approved to grow and sell medical marijuana, or what the state calls "vertically integrated operations:"

• Altus
• Etain
• Greenhouse Wellness
• Holistic

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