New Jersey regulators will start taking grower, processor and testing lab license applications in December as the state’s potential $2 billion adult-use marijuana market edges closer to a launch.
The Cannabis Regulatory Commission made the announcement Tuesday, according to NJ.com.
The applications will open Dec. 15, while dispensary applications can be submitted beginning March 15, 2022.
That doesn’t mean those businesses will be the first to sell adult-use marijuana products. In fact, they probably won’t be.
Rather, existing medical marijuana operators are pressing the state to start selling recreational marijuana now, arguing they are producing enough supply to serve both the medical and recreational markets.
But regulators don’t share that view.
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New Jersey’s adult-use law stipulates that sales begin by mid-February.
But the state already has missed a September deadline to start taking recreational marijuana applications and has been noncommittal about the February date.
Only cultivation licenses are under a cap: 37 will be issued between February 2021 and February 2023.
Roughly 70% of New Jersey municipalities have at least initially decided not to allow recreational marijuana sales.
