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.*

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