When Governor Phil Murphy took office in January 2018, he declared in his inaugural address that “a stronger and fairer New Jersey embraces comprehensive criminal justice reform—including a process to legalize marijuana.” On Feb. 22, 2021, more than three years after that statement, and with 67% of New Jersey residents supporting a ballot question on the topic, the governor signed legislation to legalize and regulate marijuana for adult use and reform the criminal justice process for minors possessing or consuming cannabis and alcohol. The now-enacted legislation regulating marijuana for adult use, Assembly Bill 21/Senate Bill 21, totaled 240 pages—the end result of six legislative committee hearings occurring over a 39-day span at the end of 2020. 

The State must now create a regulatory scheme for a product still illegal at the federal level, and those interested in becoming licensed operators are eager to review the structures of that yet-to-be defined administrative process. While regulators have some experience in this area from the medical cannabis program that now serves roughly 100,000 patients, permitting sales to anyone over age 21 will be much more complex. Both the medical cannabis program and adult-use sales now fall within the scope of New Jersey’s newest regulatory agency, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC). 

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