This week, the state of New Jersey finally made some progress towards legal marijuana sales after the state’s commission adopted its first set of regulations and laws. Now residents in the state are wondering if they can legally purchase the plant.

Unfortunately, cannabis enthusiasts in New Jersey have some waiting to do before going into a storefront to purchase their herb. That said, according to the legalization law, the state’s commission must set a date within the next six months to launch legal sales. But when that date might be is still undetermined.

This week, the state of New Jersey finally made some progress towards legal marijuana sales after the state’s commission adopted its first set of regulations and laws. Now residents in the state are wondering if they can legally purchase the plant.

Unfortunately, cannabis enthusiasts in New Jersey have some waiting to do before going into a storefront to purchase their herb. That said, according to the legalization law, the state’s commission must set a date within the next six months to launch legal sales. But when that date might be is still undetermined.

In a press conference, the commission’s chair Dianna Houenou said that it will “take a little while” before sales can launch, especially since the commission is shifting its focus towards opening applications for business licensing. She said we should expect these application processes to be “forthcoming within the next few weeks.”

When the state commission shared the new rules on Thursday, we were pleased to notice that many of these regulations are centered around social and racial equity in business licensing, as well as health and safety protocols.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for, the new legalization law notes that consumers 21 and older are now legally allowed to purchase and possess one ounce of cannabis products, so high five to that. There’s also a decriminalization law that’s been in place for a while now, and this prohibits arrest and fines for marijuana possession while allowing consumers to possess up to six ounces of cannabis without getting in trouble with the law.

It’s expected that the first operators will be New Jersey‘s established medical marijuana businesses, but only once they prove that their company holds enough product to meet the demand for both patient and adult use. These medical dispensaries must also certify that they will not change operations to favor the now legal market over the ongoing medical one. 

For the commission to establish a date for dispensaries to open, it must first consider the following: the total number of patients in the state and those enrolled at a specific dispensary, statewide and dispensary inventory, the amount of cannabis being grown in the state, and at a facility, and the amount needed to sufficiently serve patients.

During the press conference noted above, the commission’s executive director Jeff Brown said that “supply in the medical market is stronger than it has ever been.” Their first priority is making medical cannabis more accessible to anyone of age.