NJ Medical Marijuana Program Sees Rapid Growth

It is well known that New Jersey’s medical marijuana program was significantly hindered by Governor Christie. Since taking office, Governor Murphy has sought to significantly expand the program by expanding the list of qualifying medical conditions, significantly cutting the registration fees for patients, and expanding the number of doctors who can prescribe medical marijuana. The State even launched a new program that allows patients and doctors to register with the medical marijuana program through their mobile devices.

Governor’s Murphy’s efforts have paid off. This week, New Jersey hit a milestone: 20,000 patients are now enrolled for medical marijuana. According to the State Health Commissioner, the State is adding 100 new patients a day to the program. To accommodate the influx of new medical marijuana patients, the State is expected to issue several new licenses for additional Alternative Treatment Centers (i.e. dispensaries).

You can expect that there will be intense competition for the Alternative Treatment Center licenses. While the State has not released new proposed regulations or any detailed information about the process for obtaining one of the new licenses, investors and entrepreneurs should be acting now to line up potential host communities, leases, security plans, relationships with medical doctors and hospitals, and other key components of the application process.

Please contact CJ Griffin at cgriffin@pashmanstein.com or 201.270.4930 for further information.