In an ongoing, yearlong investigation, NJ Advance Media has identified multiple circumstances where conflicts of interest have gone unchecked, and where political favoritism has been cited among cannabis-permit applicants.
New Jersey promised a fair and ethical cannabis industry in which mom-and-pop shops would thrive. The law crafted by state legislators allowed towns, with little oversight, to authorize who can sell weed legally.
Greelensky Charles, a cannabis retail store applicant in Elizabeth, alleges in a lawsuit the city didn't follow its own licensing rules.On the frontlines in the City of Elizabeth is Greelensky Charles, a 38-year-old married father of two, who wants to sell cannabis legally. “I gave up everything I built for this, just to be told I’m taking a business risk by following the rules,” said Charles, who has previous cannabis arrests. “It’s those who are taking advantage of us and robbing us of our opportunities that are contributing heavily to the barriers, causing the industry to roll out so slow.”
Underlying the complaints is an increasingly widespread concern that, in allowing individual municipalities to regulate weed business licensing with no active oversight, the state has created a landscape ripe for potential corruption. In Oaklyn, a legal dispute erupted after the town used eminent domain and code enforcement to take over a property from a landlord who refused to sell to a cannabis applicant.alleging the town scored applicants arbitrarily and put in requirements that would have made it difficult for most small applicants to compete – in favor of larger operators.
“You could ask anybody in California who supported if we had a do-over, the biggest, most important number one takeaway would be — if it’s going to have a local-control provision, it’s not even worth passing this law,” said Kenny Morrison, co-founder of the California Cannabis Manufacturers Association in an October 2022 interview.
The amount of power that latitude gives, alongside regulators with no authority on how municipalities get to license, is a dynamic that critics are calling a fatal design flaw whose implications are only beginning to be felt. According to Charles’ lawsuit, the hearing officer agreed that CannAbyss had satisfied the requirements laid out in Elizabeth’s own code and ordered the City of Elizabeth to approve CannAbyss’ license application.Elizabeth officials have not responded to multiple requests for comment, including Charles’ allegation he was denied approval because he hadn’t donated money.
She brought up concerns to the press and municipality about the state Democratic Committee Chair Leroy Jones using his lobbying firm for an applicant in East Orange — where he also serves as the county chair and municipal chair of Democratic political committees. State Cannabis Regulatory Commission board member Charles Barker speaks at American Dream Mall on April 21, the one year anniversary of New Jersey's cannabis market opening.“The market conditions still do not favor small independent businesses getting off the ground — especially small independent Black and brown businesses,” Barker said on April 21. “The future of legalization is municipalities opting in with provisions that mirror or are better than the CRC’s.
“We need landlords to stop jacking up rents, we need investors to stop trying to take majority ownership of the business. We need investors to stop trying to prevent people from being able to pay back their loans if their business is successful,” she said in a March interview. “We can only see equity take flight and be brought to life if we all work together and we all row in the same direction.”
“Zoning boards and stuff like that are usually politically controlled — the mayor and city council are going to have a say on what businesses get approved,” said Paterson-based Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly in an interview last year. Johnson and Turnage pointed to a cannabis company, Joyleaf, as having donated money to the municipality’s recreation fund.Turnage and Johnson said that money was earmarked for a D.C. trip involving the city council president.
“There are transparent fundraising efforts to cover the costs of activities for this inspiring borough initiative,” said Wilkerson. “I appreciate the support of all community partners that support goodwill initiatives in Roselle.” Schwartz denied the validity of Perez’s allegations but said the council could still act independent of any one member’s views on cannabis.Perez also said he spent about $150,000 on legal fees, consultants and other expenses related to his application.
“We categorically deny that any councilmember breached any such confidentiality requirements,” said township attorney Scott Salmon of Perez’s allegations. “Receiving this license as someone who’s not a multimillionaire or doesn’t have deep pockets ... to be that person, it feels like I got screwed by this,” Castillo said.
“He’s been straight with us,” Perez said of Pagan and the new process the municipality was putting together. Perez still reiterated that local officials had an inordinate amount of power over applicants that had to navigate local politics and financially hold on while doing so.The process of a municipality approving cannabis isn’t just limited to disenchanted applicants. It has also left frustrated landlords who want to sell or rent properties to those applicants.
“The response we got back was that there was nothing in writing given to the town. So it’s very concerning,” he said. “Simply because the ordinance or resolution that is adopted by a governing body is burdensome or distasteful to some individuals does not render the same arbitrary or unreasonable,” stated the municipality’s lawyers in legal documents.What’s so frustrating about all of this, many industry observers say, is it was all extremely predictable — and could have been avoided.
“It’s really well-documented, so no state should be doing the same thing now,” Title said of the number of municipalities able to put their own licensing process in place independent of state oversight.
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