It’s not yet 4/20, but many will find this a reason to celebrate early. New Jersey officially signed off on the start of adult-use marijuana sales on Monday.
Residents in the Garden State voted to legalize recreational cannabis in 2020, but then the state had to get the system in place. In 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law three bills that allowed for the setup of a recreational cannabis industry, legalized cannabis use, and decriminalized possession. The laws also outline where you can smoke weed, where you can grow it, and how it affects policing, among other policies.
Here’s our complete breakdown of how New Jersey’s weed laws work.
Now, likely starting in mid-May, adults in New Jersey will be able to buy legal weed.
As an adult you can buy dried flower, concentrated oils, chewable forms of cannabis (pills, tablets, capsules), and drops or syrups (tinctures, topical, transdermal, and sublingual). Edible cannabis products are not available yet.
Now that weed is legal in New Jersey, when and where can you buy it? Here’s what we know.
When you can buy marijuana in New Jersey
The first approved dispensaries will be able to sell recreational marijuana, likely by mid-May.
Where you can buy marijuana in New Jersey
At first, only at medical marijuana dispensaries that get approval to sell to the public. Medical dispensaries won’t immediately be allowed to sell recreational cannabis until they are approved by New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC). Because those dispensaries are already in operation, the process for their business to get approved to sell recreational weed is much shorter. New cannabis dispensaries will take a few months longer to open up.
Medical patients are the priority. Medical marijuana dispensaries also have to prove that they have an adequate supply of products to serve medical patients first, and enough left over to sell for adult personal use.