New Jersey’s top Senate leaders want to crack down on unlicensed cannabis stores, with fines reaching $50,000 for individuals and $250,000 for businesses.
S4287, sponsored by Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, and Republican Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Thursday. It still needs approval from the full Senate and Assembly before heading to Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
How would the bill help licensed cannabis retailers?
The measure comes more than five years after New Jersey voters approved legalization. It targets unlicensed smoke shops and storefronts operating outside the state’s regulated cannabis market, which generated more than $1.1 billion in sales in 2025.
Under the bill, operating an unlicensed marijuana retail business would be a third-degree crime, punishable by fines ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 to $250,000 for businesses.
Similar penalties would apply to unlicensed sellers of vapor products.
The bill also would:
- Authorize the seizure of products
- Allow towns to seek the closure of businesses that repeatedly violate the law
- Make certain violations eligible for racketeering prosecution
Businesses with more than two violations within two years could be declared public nuisances. Municipal governments could then restrict their operations or close them.
Many of the bill’s supporters operate licensed cannabis businesses. They say illicit sellers undercut dispensaries that pay taxes, test products and follow state rules.
Todd Johnson, president of the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association, said licensed stores compete with nearby smoke shops that often operate in areas where cannabis retailers are prohibited by local zoning rules or municipal bans.
“Oftentimes, they’re near dispensaries, sometimes near schools,” Johnson told NJ.com. “They don’t abide by the same setbacks that the local ordinances in New Jersey have set.”
How is the bill different from previous legislation targeting illicit cannabis businesses?
The proposal follows S4154, an earlier Scutari-Bucco bill that drew heavy opposition.
That bill would have created criminal penalties for consumers who bought cannabis from unlicensed sellers. Critics said it would punish shoppers misled by stores posing as legitimate retailers.
The new bill focuses almost entirely on sellers.
“As a result of legalization, which was designed to protect folks, there has become this black market of sales,” Bucco told NJ.com. “What this bill does is try to prevent that black market from continuing.”
