Recreational sales of cannabis for adults 21 and older started Thursday, with the first alternative treatment centers opening at 6 a.m.
BLOOMFIELD, N.J.
“It’s pretty amazing, exciting and if I get pulled over on the way home and I’m ever asked if I have any drugs in the car now I’m allowed to say only this,” Barrows said, holding up the canister of marijuana flower he had just purchased.
Hagan Seeley, 23, said he had just found out a day earlier that recreational sales were starting and decided to see what the scene looked like.
New Jersey is among 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, with legalized recreational marijuana markets.
Ben Kovler, chairman and CEO of Green Thumb Industries, which operates the Bloomfield dispensary, was at the opening Thursday.
Murphy’s fiscal year 2023 budget is pending before the Democrat-led Legislature and estimates revenues of just $19 million in a nearly $49 billion budget.
Legislation governing the recreational market calls for the 6.625% sales tax to apply, with 70% of the proceeds going to areas disproportionately affected by marijuana-related arrests.
State regulators say dispensaries are allowed to sell up to the equivalent of 1 ounce of cannabis, which means an ounce of dried flower, or 5 grams of concentrate or 1,000 milligrams of edibles, like gummies.