Until now, marijuana has only been available in the Garden State for medicinal purposes and through a doctor’s prescription. But all that changed at sunrise on Thursday, when New Jersey joined 13 other states in legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
It certainly is a new day. Although smoking is still banned in public, cannabis users will no longer have to hide their stash when the cops come along. Now it’s the cops who are providing the security to the dispensaries set to grow their business with recreational sales.
“It’s a big change,” said Rochelle Park Police Chief Dean Pinto, where the Ascend dispensary is located — one of seven locations around the state that is beginning recreational sales. “Let’s hope that people act responsibly, that they don’t smoke and drive, just like they shouldn’t drink and drive.”
Rochelle Park is one of 13 locations around the state that will begin recreational sales on Thursday. The others are:
- Verano, under the Zen Leaf banner, at its locations in Elizabeth and Lawrence.
- Acreage, at The Botanist Williamstown and The Botanist Egg Harbor.
- Green Thumb, which uses the RISE banner, at RISE Bloomfield and RISE Paterson starting at 6 a.m.
- Curaleaf, at Bellmawr and Edgewater Park.
- TerrAscend, which uses the Apothecarium banner, at its location in Phillipsburg and Maplewood.
- The Cannabist/ Columbia Care, at its locations in Deptford and Vineland. Both will open for recreational weed sales at 5 p.m.
Pinto said he’s met with the Ascend staff, which encourages its customers to order online, download a QR code, then pick up their order and leave. There should be no hanging out, If you’re thinking of a pot cafe with psychedelic posters and Jimi Hendrix music blasting, then think again, he said.
“It’s not like a head shop that you used to see on the boardwalk,” Pinto said. “The place looks more like an Apple store.”
Edgewater Park officials were equally complimentary of Curaleaf’s efforts there to prepare for recreational sales.
“Curaleaf has been very good about their security on location,” said Edgewater Park Police Chief Brett Evans. “They hire ex-troopers and ex-police officers to work and I know that they have beefed up their security. They hired one of our guys to work right at the end of their driveway to make sure that the traffic does not spill out onto Route 130.”
The town will post signage on Route 130 alerting customers that they cannot line up on the highway shoulder and that they must not block traffic. If the parking lot is overloaded, the driveway will be closed off until spaces open up, Evans noted.
The chief acknowledged that Curaleaf has been a good neighbor.
“I will say that Curaleaf has been fantastic with contacting me in reference to security out there,” Evans said. “They let us tour the facility to see exactly how they operate. They have been very cooperative. It’s a business and they want to succeed in town. They’re an open book as far as I can tell.”
New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to legalize marijuana in 2020. It took the state more than a year to hammer out the details, and the ground rules set down by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission are not going to please everyone.
One of the major concerns is how to keep marijuana users from driving while stoned. Drunk drivers are easier to prosecute because they are subject to the Breathalyzer, but no such technology exists to detect a stoned driver.
Because pot is now legal, a police officer can no longer stop a car simply because he smells marijuana. There has to be some other probable cause for the stop – erratic driving, speeding, a broken tail light.
And legalization is starting at a time when the state’s main tool for prosecuting suspected drugged drivers – testimony by police officers who are trained as Drug Recognition Experts – is on hold following a New Jersey Supreme Court case. The case, argued by the Office of the Public Defender, asserted that the 12-point test that cops used to determine whether a driver was high on drugs was “scientifically invalid.”
The challenge was brought by Michael Olenowski, a Denville man who was convicted of driving while intoxicated and then appealed. Olenowski died in 2021, but his challenge to the 12-point test lives on, and is now in the hands of a Special Master appointed by the N.J. Supreme Court.
That Special Master, retired Judge Joseph F. Lisa, finished hearing testimony earlier this year and is currently preparing his recommendations to the New Jersey Supreme Court. In the meantime, the New Jersey State Police are continuing to train local police officers as Drug Recognition Experts, even though changes are likely.
“We have a problem now where you have people driving high sometimes,” said Evans, the Edgewater Park police chief. “We are going to get officers trained.”
In Paterson, legalization has received the strong backing from Mayor Andre Sayegh, who likes the tax revenue and the jobs that the Green Thumb dispensary will create. Some fear the dispensary will be a magnet for loiterers and criminal activity, but Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said off-duty cops will be handling security.
“We are working with the vendor to engage in some kind of contract,” Speziale said, adding that he met with the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, the city’s Public Safety Commission and the ABC board this week. Speziale said the city already has an ordinance on the books that prohibits smoking pot in public places.
In Camden County, Bellmawr’s solicitor was confident that things would go smoothly at the Curaleaf dispensary. Long praised the cooperation he’s gotten from Curaleaf and state agencies as it prepares for Thursday’s opening.
“We’ve had a lot of input from the state, the New Jersey Cannabis Commission. Their administration has been great,” Long said. “They reached out to me personally yesterday to see if Bellmawr had any questions, if there was anything they could do to help us.”
Bellmawr’s police chief isn’t expecting problems, Long said, but he may increase staffing just to make certain.
“He anticipates that he might put a couple of additional officers on just to see how it plays out, but no one’s really anticipating any trouble,” Long said. “There’s no loitering, there’s no smoking on the premises of cannabis. None of those things are permitted.”
The legalized cannabis business could help the borough in two ways, he noted.
“Municipalities are struggling to locate alternative sources of revenue, so we’re looking forward to benefit from getting a piece of the sales tax, obviously,” Long said. “We hope it also has a dual benefit of folks that come into Bellmawr shopping or stopping and using some of our other commercial establishments. We hope the people that come in to the community take advantage of the things the community has to offer.”
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