Customers began queuing before dawn at Rise Paterson, a marijuana dispensary in New Jersey that greets customers with free donuts and a ragout that explodes with speakers.
As New Jersey launched its first legalized marijuana sales for entertainment on Thursday, Rise, along with approximately a dozen other medical marijuana dispensaries across the state, opened its doors to customers 21 and older for legal sales.
“I’m excited that everything is opening up legally,” said 23-year-old Daniel Garcia, who arrived at 3:30 a.m. and was first in line after a 25-minute drive from his home in Union City, New Jersey.
After enjoying a front-row view of the dispensary’s ribbon cut, Mr. Garcia, who had previously bought his marijuana from a dealer, approached a customer pavilion in Rise’s brilliant new space and chose a brand called Animal Face and Powerful a strain called Banana Cream, which he then took from uniformed officers.
“I’ve never had them, so I’ll try,” he said. “I’m very picky when it comes to my weed, and sometimes I ask my man, ‘Who’s good?'” And it’s not always right. I like to go to the dispensaries because I know for sure that what they tell me is true.
They are the first such sales in the New York area. Rise is a 20-minute drive from New York City.
At least 18 states have legalized marijuana for entertainment, but New Jersey is one of the few on the East Coast to do so. New York legalizes marijuana for entertainment in 2021 and is expected to begin sales later this year.
Under new state laws, entertainment cannabis customers can legally buy up to an ounce of marijuana for sale for smoking; or up to five grams of concentrates, resins or oils; or 10 packs of 100 milligrams of edible products.
Jeff Brown, executive director of the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which oversees the licensing, cultivation, testing and sales of cannabis in New Jersey, warned buyers to expect long queues at the beginning and to “start low and slow” with their purchases and consumption. .
It is illegal under state law to have more than six ounces at any one time, and it is illegal to drive while on marijuana. In addition, because federal law still prohibits the possession of marijuana, New Jersey buyers cannot legally transport it outside the state.
Some marijuana enthusiasts were eager to start sales a day earlier, on April 20, an unofficial cannabis festival.
But there were fears among regulators and industry that with just 13 fully approved places to serve thousands of customers across the state, high turnout could overwhelm these centers, possibly causing traffic and parking problems, and unmanageable lines.
“Choosing 4/20 for the opening day would be an unmanageable logistical challenge for patients and other buyers, surrounding communities and municipalities,” said Tony-Ann Blake, a spokesman for the commission.
Instead, 4/21 was the culmination of years of efforts to legalize marijuana in the country.
In November 2020, state voters approved a referendum to legalize marijuana, and the state legislature legalized it in 2021. This was followed by months of industrial regulation and licensing of candidates to open dispensaries.
The first approvals for recreational sales were issued to medical marijuana dispensaries, which have been allowed to sell to medically licensed buyers for years and are often owned by large cannabis corporations.
Dozens of smaller cultivators and growers have received state-issued conditional licenses in the past month, but have not yet set up shops or received approvals from local municipalities.
An early-growing customer on Thursday, media executive Greg DeLucia, said he bought his lawn in more spectacular conditions.
“My dealer,” he said, “was a man with four teeth named Bubbles.
He was now waiting in front of Rise Dispensary in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on the other side of Bloomfield Avenue from a chiropractor, a hair salon, and other storefronts.
It was a long way from the Bubbles dealer. Congratulations handed out cakes from a blue food truck in the parking lot run by Glazed & Confused, a dessert company. Cheerful dispensary staff wearing laminated company badges greeted customers entering under the balloon arch while a steel drummer played pop hits.
Mr DeLucia said he last traveled to Massachusetts, where recreational marijuana was now legal to make purchases. But on Thursday, he said he made a 12-minute drive from his nearby town, armed with a “shopping list” from his wife.
Another Bloomfield client, Christian Pastuisaca, consulted the proposals and placed his orders in a touchscreen kiosk. He came out with a white paper bag containing one-eighth of an ounce of indoor marijuana in a small black jar costing just over $ 60.
The THC content in it is “really high”, he said, perfect for the “euphoric” smoking experience he likes.
Proponents of legalizing marijuana for entertainment praised the new jobs and the tax revenue it will bring to the state. There was also a social justice premium: fewer marijuana arrests affecting disproportionately colored people.
Much of the tax on cannabis sales will go to blacks and Latin American neighborhoods historically affected by marijuana arrests. There will also be an “excise tax on social capital” to fund initiatives aimed at racial and economic injustice.
“This could be the beginning of a green rush,” Mayor Andre Sayeg told Patterson, New Jersey’s largest city, where legal sales begin Thursday. Shops are not yet open in the larger cities of Newark and Jersey City.
Mr Sayegh said Paterson had adopted a public safety plan to maintain order in the early days of entertainment sales and would allow off-duty police officers to work as security officers at the dispensary.
Patterson City Council voted last year to ban the marijuana business in the city, but the mayor vetoed the decision, paving the way for legal sales.
Mr Sayegh said he did so because recreational marijuana dispensaries would create more local jobs and ultimately generate millions in revenue after the city imposed local taxes on cannabis sales for entertainment.
But opponents of legal marijuana have expressed concerns about the possible dangers of legalizing marijuana for entertainment.
Nick De Mauro, a former police detective in Bergen County, New Jersey, said legalizing marijuana for entertainment could be “sending a mixed message to young people, saying, ‘If adults can do it, why can’t we?’ “
Another concern is the difficulty in controlling dangerous driving by marijuana users, because “it is difficult to judge whether someone is under influence,” said Mr De Mauro, who heads the Drug Enforcement and Violence Enforcement Group, a police support group. in educating people about the dangers of marijuana use.
“We have to look at this with extreme caution,” he said. “You are legalizing a psychoactive substance with big problems and we need to protect our communities.”
Justin Morris contributed to a report from Patterson, New Jersey, and Sean Piccoli from Bloomfield, New Jersey
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