TRENTON – Senate President Nick Scutari announced today that he will form a special legislative committee to review the delays with legal marijuana sales in New Jersey.
Senator Scutari said he wants to get explanations on the repeated hold-ups in expanding medical dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana and in the opening of retail facilities for adult-use cannabis. He also wants to know what can be done to meet the demands and reduce the costs of medical marijuana.
“These delays are totally unacceptable,” said Senator Scutari, the architect of both the medical and recreational cannabis laws. “We need to get the legal marijuana market up and running in New Jersey. This has become a failure to follow through on the public mandate and to meet the expectations for new businesses and consumers.”
Senator Scutari wants to form a bi-partisan special committee and will ask the Assembly if they want to participate to make it a joint panel of legislators from both houses.
The oversight hearings will include an accounting from CRC officials and input from those operating cannabis businesses or waiting to get licensed, as well as others involved in the legal marijuana market.
The voters approved adult-use recreational marijuana in 2020 and the implementing legislation was enacted more than a year ago.
The Cannabis Regulatory Commission missed its deadline for allowing the Alternative Treatment Centers to sell to the recreational market. The licensing of growers, distributors and retailers to serve the adult-use market has been plagued with repeated delays.
Senator Scutari said the committee’s membership and scheduling will be worked out soon.