The post These New Jersey Towns Are Preemptively Banning Cannabis Businesses appeared first on High Times.
Recreational cannabis isn’t even legal in New Jersey. Yet while lawmakers debate what, if any, marijuana legislation they want to introduce, some municipalities are already deciding for them. Over the past few months, a groundswell of anti-cannabis advocacy has coincided with a number of cities opting out of a legal-weed future. Continuing a trend set by Point Pleasant Beach last December, these New Jersey Towns are preemptively banning cannabis businesses.
The Towns
Middleton Township, Wall Township, towns in Monmouth County and Ocean County like Berkeley and Toms River, Seaside Heights and several other towns across New Jersey have all voted or are planning to vote to ban cannabis businesses.
Some are also passing ordinances banning farms and manufacturing facilities in addition to dispensaries. Officials in these areas are also vocally opposing legalization efforts.
Counties’ opposition to legal weed is for the most part symbolic. But the official positions of county boards can be influential in shaping the stance its towns ultimately take.
Ocean County, for example, has passed a resolution opposing marijuana legalization and encouraging towns to make the same call.
Pro-cannabis advocacy groups have been somewhat taken by surprise at the sudden surge in opposition to legalization. The earliest New Jersey could vote on a legal recreational measure is June 30 of this year.
That’s why president of the New Jersey Cannabusiness Association Scott Rudder called the opposition “premature.”
Even though these New Jersey towns are preemptively banning cannabis businesses, other towns in the state have eagerly and enthusiastically embraced the possibility of legalization.