CannaBusiness Association celebrates ruling on medical marijuana licenses

The New Jersey CannaBusiness Association celebrated an appellate court ruling that said the State Department of Health did not provide enough information to justify its rejection of medical marijuana licenses for several firms.

“There were already countless reasons to eliminate license caps and competition-based licensing for both medical and adult-use cannabis. This decision only further supports and strengthens those reasons,” CannaBusiness President Scott Rudder said. “We cannot afford to continue having a medical licensure process that is bogged down in lawsuits and bureaucratic red tape. While fights play out in the courts, New Jersey patients and local entrepreneurs suffer and the black market thrives.”

The court’s ruling vacated the department’s decision to not grant the licenses but left the fate of the firms’ applications with the department.

“This flawed process has created only six new dispensaries in three years,” Rudder said. “Meanwhile, states like Massachusetts have issued hundreds of licenses during that same timeframe and generated thousands of new taxpaying jobs.”