Politics
New Jersey Senate President’s Bill Would Overhaul Marijuana Rules
“I don’t see how this is good at all, for anyone. This is opening up the floodgates for misconduct.”
By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey’s cannabis industry would see a host of changes under a new bill from Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D).
The measure would allow some medical marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational cannabis without getting an OK from local leaders, loosen ethics requirements for state cannabis regulators and strip the governor of the power to name the chair of the state panel that regulates the industry.
Scutari (D-Union) has proposed some of this before, in a bill he introduced in January that never advanced in the Senate. Scutari, who is a major supporter of legalized cannabis, did not return a request for comment on the new bill.
One of the major changes in the new measure, introduced last week, would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to apply for a license to sell recreational cannabis without municipal approval. The bill would allow this even in towns that have banned recreational dispensaries.
When New Jersey legalized cannabis, it allowed towns to opt out of the recreational marijuana industry, and about 70 percent of them did. Some limit sales to medical cannabis only.
The number of people enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program has dwindled since cannabis became more readily available for people older than 21. Recreational users can purchase most cannabis products available at medical dispensaries, which was not the case when the industry launched more than three years ago.
The bill also seeks to change oversight rules for the five-member Cannabis Regulatory Commission by loosening restrictions on commissioners’ political activity and modifying rules that regulate when they can speak to people who have applications before the panel.
The measure would allow commission members and employees to attend political events with written notice by a member or the executive director. Commission members are already permitted to hold public office, but the bill has a provision explicitly allowing them to campaign for office and fundraise for those campaigns.
Current law bars commission members from meeting with anyone who has applications or other matters before the panel except at the agency’s offices. The bill would end that ban and allow commissioners and employees of the agency to meet with people who have business before the agency at any locations designated by the commission.
While all those meetings would be required to be logged, they would not be subject to the state’s public meetings law unless they are attended by more than one person on the commission. Joshua Bachner, a cannabis attorney at Mandelbaum Barrett in Roseland, said this invites malfeasance.
“I don’t see how this is good at all, for anyone,” Bachner said. “This is opening up the floodgates for misconduct.”
Bachner also noted a provision of the bill would allow state employees and their family members to work in the cannabis industry, as long as state ethics officials or the New Jersey Supreme Court say it wouldn’t create a conflict of interest, or the “reasonable risk of the public perception” of one.
In 2023, New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner barred state courts employees from taking any jobs in the medical or recreational cannabis industry.
The bill would also increase commissioners’ salaries from $125,000 to $160,000 and the chair’s salary from $141,000 to $156,000.
The measure comes in the waning days of the current legislative session and Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. Murphy, who leaves office on January 20, campaigned in his first term on legalizing recreational cannabis. Voters approved legalization via a ballot question, and the first recreational dispensaries launched in April 2022.
This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.
