Recreational cannabis is now widely available in New Jersey, and sales are booming. Here’s what you should know, from who is eligible to buy to how much cannabis is taxed.
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Three years ago, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law making marijuana sales legal in the Garden State. The cannabis industry has since taken off, with total sales reaching almost $1 billion last year.
If you are 21 and older with a state-issued photo ID, you are allowed to buy up to 1 ounce of cannabis.
Scott Rudder, president of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, said that dispensary consumers are typically directed toward a kiosk or a sales desk.
“So if you’re there because you want to recreate, or you’re there because you have anxiety or you’re there because you just want a good night’s sleep, sharing this conversation with the sales associate, with the bud-tender can help direct that person to find a product that’s best for you,” he said.
The cost of cannabis products can range from $20 to $70. Many stores offer specials and discounts.
“I think when customers go into dispensaries, they are generally pleased with regard to the price ranges that are available,” Rudder said. “It’s not just a standard, across-the-board, it’s more along the lines of I have options here now.”
New Jersey now has more than 100 cannabis dispensaries spread across the state.
In addition to the standard 6.625% sales tax, a local municipality tax and cultivation and manufacturing taxes are levied on the products. The total tax ranges from 10% to 12%, which Rudder says is one of the lowest rates in the nation.
Cannabis, unlike alcohol and most other drugs, can be detected in blood, urine and saliva tests, sometimes days and weeks after it is ingested, depending on the amount consumed, body metabolism and the level of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Rudder pointed out “the industry has been very supportive of trying to figure out techniques to make sure tests are more accurate.”
He said that, because cannabis is now widely accepted as medication for pain, anxiety and insomnia management, “a lot of employers, if they do have a drug [testing] policy program, they’re not including cannabis in that program anymore.”
Rudder noted some companies follow stricter federal drug policies and mandates, which are more conservative because marijuana consumption is illegal according to federal law.
Companies have the right to create their own drug-use policy and, most, he said “recognize what cannabis is.” “If [workers] are showing up sober at work and test positive for something that may have happened a couple of weeks ago, that becomes a complicating factor,” Redder added. “So a lot of them are just not testing for cannabis whatsoever.”
New Jersey residents cannot grow marijuana plants at home, but the concept is under consideration in Trenton. Legislation could soon be introduced to allow Garden State residents to grow their own weed crop. Rudder said patients using cannabis to treat medical issues “should have the opportunity to grow their own medicine.”
Cannabis has been utilized around the world for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, he said.
“That is something that is going to happen, it needs to happen,” he said. “It must happen, it should happen.”
You are not allowed to carry cannabis from one state where it’s legal to another state where it is not, Rudder said.
So, if you’re a Pennsylvania resident 21 or older and you travel to Jersey to buy marijuana at a dispensary, you are not permitted by law to bring it back to Pennsylvania. But there is a loophole.
“There is no enforcement mechanism for that, so you’re not going to have DEA agents on the other side of the Walt Whitman Bridge ready to pounce on somebody that may have bought a few joints at a dispensary,” Rudder said.
