30 New Medical Pot Shops Are Coming To NJ: Heres Where – Patch.com

NEW JERSEY On Tuesday, New Jersey's Cannabis Regulatory Commission announced it has approved licenses to 30 new medical marijuana dispensaries that will open throughout the state.

The medical pot shops will be spread equally through the state: 10 in North Jersey, 10 in Central Jersey and 10 in South Jersey, said the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, or CRC.

However, the CRC declined to make public the exact towns where the applicants applied to open up shop, saying it was not yet considered public information. Stay tuned for towns.

In 2019, dozens of people submitted applications to open medical marijuana shops in New Jersey. The Cannabis Regulatory Commission is the government agency that reviews all the applications and decides which applications will be approved.

The CRC said these new shops opening will avoid people having to make long drives to buy medicinal weed.

"We constantly hear from patients that prices are too high and that there are too few dispensaries with too few product options," said CRC Chairwoman Dianna Houenou. "More medicinal dispensaries will mean prices will come down and patients will have more choices for where they go."

Here are the names of the 30 new licensees and where they will be located:

10 medical pot shops opening in North Jersey:

10 medical pot shops opening in Central Jersey:

10 medical pot shops opening in South Jersey:

Currently, there are 23 medical pot shops in New Jersey, so these new licencees will bring the total up to more than 50 medical pot shops throughout the state, once they all open.

The chair of the commission said supply cannot keep up with New Jersey's demand for medicinal pot: They originally were only going to approve 15 new medical pot shops, but decided to increase it to 30.

"The intent was to award 15 dispensaries, but based on our assessment of patients' access to medicine in the New Jersey market considering price and location we believe that would be inadequate," said CRC's executive director Jeff Brown. "The number of registered patients go up every month."

There are currently 121,357 patients enrolled in New Jersey's medical marijuana program. The state expects that number to increase in 2022 despite the fact that recreational marijuana is now legal in New Jersey as well.

"The situation has not changed with the legalization of recreational cannabis; the current alternative treatment centers have not kept pace with patient need," Houenou said previously.

Since Gov. Phil Murphy legalized recreational marijuana at the start of 2021, many New Jersey towns scrambled to pass laws restricting where or even if pot shops can open.

But these medical pot shops "are not subject to any of the restrictions municipalities have adopted for recreational facilities in recent months," said the CRC.

And newly licensed medical pot shops may expand into the recreational business, said the Commission. Legal pot shops can start opening in New Jersey in 2022.

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission is the regulating agency for New Jersey's booming legal weed industry. In October, the commission approved eight new medical marijuana grow facilities: Five in Central Jersey, three in North Jersey and two in South Jersey. These are strictly facilities where medical marijuana can be grown.

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30 New Medical Pot Shops Are Coming To NJ: Heres Where - Patch.com