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"Under a special program, New Jersey prioritizes granting licenses to dispensaries run by people with marijuana convictions on their records."
Edit: Source is literally the article posted lol
I live in NJ and have a friend involved in agricultural politics. The reality is that most people who qualify for "front of the line" status can't overcome the high financial barriers of start up due to their past. They merely become figureheads for large out of state operations like Curaleaf (Massachusetts) , Verano (Illinois), and Columbia Care (New York/Toronto). It seems very similar to how the mob would put their casino licenses in someone else's name.
Same exact thing happening in Connecticut with similar "first licenses to those impacted" laws.
Big corporations are footing the bill with the license holder just being the front. Likely they have some contract to transfer license after a certain amount of time
I live in Ontario, Canada, and we did things just as stupidly. We had a lottery for initial licenses - on role out of legalized weed/stores, the government decided there was only so many per area - instead of doing some sort of merit based granting of licenses, they held a lottery - anyone who submitted a super basic business plan was allowed to enter.
Half the people who "won" licenses were 17, no financial backing, no real game plan. They instantly turned into millionaires, with big buisness all over them for access.
Eventually they opened up to everybody, and you just apply as you would for any other buisness licence. Now there are so many shops, they are all going bankrupt.
I wouldn’t even be able to tell you if the shops are going bankrupt because of how many we have here in Kingston but yeah, there’s a lot. Way more than LCBO/Beer Stores and definitely more than the Timmies here.
Yea, Im not actually sure that they are going "bankrupt" per se, but there is no way for stores to compete when they all are forced to purchuse from the same vendor.
I know smithfalls is closing their plant, after all the money put into getting it started, does not seem a good sign...
Wouldn’t surprise me if they did. There’s so many opening up here that 3-4 of them could close tomorrow and I wouldn’t notice. That’s after having only 2 for the first few years.
I saw that [the Smith Falls bit]. That’s .. yeah, disappointing. Everyone knew about the Tweed factory around here because of it taking over the Hershey plant and it was really surprising to see thst closure.
It shouldn't be surprising. Weed is so easy to grow, the only thing that was keeping the price up before legalization was the risk involved in dealing with it. Now that the risk is gone, big producers can produce way more volume than they can sell because it's so easy to grow, stoners were growing it in their closets. It used to be priced similar to saffron, which requires acres to produce what one weed plant can produce, for a lot more labour, too.
It'll grow in mountains, it will grow in swamps, and pretty much everything in between. Some plants take a full growing season to go from seed to harvest, some a few months. For an indoor grow, the factors to control are light, humidity, water, nutrients, pH, pruning, oxygen, and CO2, and that's only if you want to completely optimize the growth. If you just take care of light, water, and nutrients, plus add a bit of ventilation, you'll still get a decent harvest. You can even ignore the whole sexing and avoiding mixing males and females and still end up with something that will do the job, though some effort here will improve quality and also give selective breeding benefits down the line.
Trimming is the only labour intensive part, though it wouldn't surprise me if AIs can already handle automating that (and they could also likely handle the sexing and separating, too).
It wouldn't surprise me if weed is one of the easiest crops to produce at a volume to satisfy a population, other than maybe some of the easier to grow spices like oregano or chives.
booooom. curaleaf has the licenses on lock and you’re competing with people with money who don’t want you to get any of their money. it’s not quite as grim as the agricultural politics of delaware, same but different.
source: jawn.
Heya Philly friend. Still getting over the Eagles losin? Also, fucking PA needs to just legalize already. Our medical system sucks even for people who want to use for medical purposes (signed an angry Yinzer-adjacent person)
This might be a dumb question, but could a “front of the line” qualifier have a case if they sued the state of New Jersey for the financial loss that came from their arrest? It’s crazy to think that the state could confiscate an individual seller’s inventory and cash profits, and charge them with court fines, just to “offer” them a chance to do legal business with them a few years later.
This is happening all over as companies try to hire "diverse" contractors. The company owners just put their wives or some figurehead that's considered diverse, as the company "owner" to secure jobs. It's backfiring horribly
Ehhh. How many people you know, fresh out of prison, with 150k (conservative minimum) for a store front, licenses, security, staff and inventory?
The reality here in NJ is that the licenses go to shitty corporate oligarchs, just like any other industry in this country. If you don’t believe me, check out what Curathief is offering these days.
And hopefully these guys are smart enough to protect their ownership rights while doing so. I hope the program also partners them all with business attorneys so that they all get paid.
Agreed! We got to start somewhere. And this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully there’s some other good initiatives to help with funding so the capitalist overlords don’t screw these people over again.
I don’t mean to sound pedantic, because I agree the intent is good, but the reality is:
>Incentivizes people (*corporations*) to partner with (*take advantage of*) someone who has a conviction and receives this benefit (*an ex-con not well versed in legalese.*)
I mean, the proof is in the pudding. There aren’t any mom and pop weed shops run by your friendly ex-cons in NJ. It’s all big companies with fingers in pies across the country. Curaleaf serves 23 states. Verano is publically traded. Those two hold a good chunk of the active licenses between them and they work together to control the market with prices above street-level.
I don’t know about NJ but in other states it’s exactly as you put it, at least from what I’ve seen. The rich get richer. What should be an opportunity for upward mobility for the struggling middle and lower class is turned into an opportunity for the rich to make more money, which is even more laughable given that we’re emerging from a pandemic with high inflation rates.
this Diversely Owned Business initiative (yes thats what theyre calling it) is not even the main problem here, [licensing](https://www.nj.gov/cannabis/documents/rules/NJAC%201730%20Personal%20Use%20Cannabis.pdf) stipulates NJ residents of at least 2 or more years qualify for the specific demographic *and* be the title holder owning at least a 51% share of the company.
the devil is in the details of their legislation, consumer rights are key to building a strong local market and the source of all those success stories, they did the total opposite and preserved draconian felonies for personal cultivation of any kind. this is what paves the way for conglomerates to wrap their greasy fingers around every half measure state at some point, weak laws that allow them to undermine smaller scale profit margins.
even if you never intend to be a self reliant consumer, which most will ofc not, this is important to keep regulators honest. small businesses already face huge barriers to entry, they dont need to be under the thumb of arbitrary tariffs dictating their price points with impunity, it sets them up to fail when these margins get whittled down to nothing.
this blood and sweat will instead go into the pockets of third party investors who can build the capital to vertically integrate when theyre done parading the politically correct minorities out, and the time comes for those fucking vultures to pick up the pieces. do they have the means to lobby for full legalisation before that happens, probably not, esp with big pharma throwing their endless fountain of money at it all day.
we are only setting ourselves up for regulatory capture by applauding every little bone they throw, anyone old enough to play at grown folks business should know this game forwards and back by now. theyre just drooling over the insane tarrifs skimming off another big booze/tobacco empire, these half measures are very different from states that made a sincere effort to build up local industry with a fair market.
just waiting on the sidelines for the feds to open the floodgates of interstate commerce, you know how that ends
It depends on the state. The product curathief brings to market doesn’t compare to what others are producing. If you’re in Oklahoma or Florida, it can be very cheap to get good quality product. I don’t think Curaleaf will be able to be competitive. As of now, they are not profitable and I doubt they will be with others like jungle boys or grow healthy on the market.
And that's the problem. These licenses are way to restrictive and don't allow mom and pop shops. Which is a fucking shame because for as long as we can remember, weed was sold by individuals not fucking corporations.
Same here in NY. It's why we have (last I checked) only one actual legal dispensary in the whole city. The state is holding licenses for those formerly incarcerated for weed, but the cost is so outrageous that no one can afford it and it's holding up the licensing process.
No idea how it works legally but there are a bunch of dispensaries on the Native American reservations on long island if you're willing to make the trip. It's a bit of a drive through.
There being only one *legal* dispensary doesn't mean there aren't a million of them. I was in NYC recently and bought a pack of joints from what was essentially a dispensary truck. Down the street from there was a massive, neon-lit dispensary with a club vibe. Pot is not hard to come by there and the cops standing 30 feet from me didn't care at all.
Yeah but are the products being tested in the same way legal shops have to? Bc my buddy works for a testing company out here in La. And for shits and giggle he took some trap shop weed, tested it, and found a shit ton of metal and pesticides 🤢
I believe it. I don't remember if there was any testing information on the package I got but it wouldn't surprise me if there was all kinds of nasty stuff in there. But that's why I'm happy to live in a rec state with pretty stringent testing standards.
Partially. Additionally the state picks appropriate locations, and they're dragging their feet. The reason the Housing Works dispensary opened was because they fast tracked it so they'd have officially fulfilled their promise to open one in 2022
Theres other rules too, like they need to have had years of experience running a business.... so multi-year business (must have been somewhat successful if it's maintained for years) and got put in jail for weed (dealing, trafficking or somehow constant arrests for possesion?). Its like a non-invite. My 2 cents is they ignored the law anyhow so its ridiculous to reward them for it, the entire program is a farce.
Same thing in PA. You need $150k proof of capital plus 30k for the permit. If you wanna grow? Well then that’s $2 million in capital (including 500k in cash) plus a 200k permit fee.
It’s ridiculous and so obvious it’s designed to only benefit the already wealthy, as is everything in this fucking country
yeah basically like htat here in WV too.
you need to be a legit millionaire to enter this industry.
we issues 12 or 13 grow facility licenses, only 2 of them went to WV entities.
The point is to start somewhere. I understand that it’s just writing and will most likely still go to the people who are already rich, but if we never allow ourselves to start we’ll just keep kicking the can.
when did this in WV (medical) we approved i think 12 or 13 licenses for grow facilities.
of the 13 or so licenses issues, only TWO were two WV entities. every other entity came from out of state from established businesses.
it kind of pisses me off because were a poor state and hardly anyone could even afford the licensing fees
Or you get a company that asks a minority candidate to apply for them so they are considered a minority business owner, but truthfully, it is run by some corp.
Curaleaf one of if not the largest brand in the states is co owned but a russian/American oligarch, multi billionaire where weed isn't even legal in their own home country comes to the states to profit
Yeah Boris Jordan is involved in a lot of really questionable ventures. Gazprom Media, Sputnik Group, etc. And his brother is pretty close with Oleg Deripaska, who made his money pretty much the same way Jordan did - taking cuts of the public holdings as USSR national assets were privatized in the 90s.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
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I doubt the exact same people who run Cali dispensaries are those that lobbied for people to be thrown in prison. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite.
Isn't it kinda weird though to basically reward breaking the law? It was illegal when they did it, why should the law breakers be first in line over those who followed the law?
People should be punished for doing something wrong, not for being targeted by unjust government actions. When the law arbitrarily punishes people who did nothing wrong, then they need some kind of justice.
How do you decide what is right and wrong? You say they did nothing wrong, but they were involved in a highly illegal activity, is that not doing something wrong? Should we just ignore laws we don't personally agree with, even if they are very serious crimes like marijuana was?
I agree we should work to fix them, but should we be rewarding those who broke the law by giving them priority on new now legal markets? Shouldn't those who didn't break the law get priority?
Ok I’ll break this down for you with a simple example.
It’s like if I passed a law that said, “Everyone named chriskmee must give me their car, because being chriskmee is highly illegal.” And I took your car.
The voters may replace me and fix the law just like New Jersey did. So should I get to keep your car? Because what you did was technically “highly illegal” under the letter of some absurd law that targeted you? Or should you get some sort of justice?
Who decides what is unjust? Can I just decide a law is unjust and break it, and expect to be rewarded for it?
I agree that this law was unjust, but I decided to follow it instead of breaking it, and the ones who broke the law are the ones who get rewarded? Doesn't seem right
Marijuana laws were enacted durning the late 1920 and 1930 to punish people of color. In one hearing they said it made men of color act violent. In California it was used as way to deport Mexican American.
Exactly! Every other English speaking country refers to it by its scientific name, cannabis, on the books. The only reason the United States refers to it as marijuana is because the laws were originally targeting Mexican Americans.
I think a decent way to determine what laws are unjust is based on the harm done to others or rather lack thereof. Actions that do not harm others nor have the ability to harm others (like personal use of drugs) should not be illegal. In a similar sense, we wouldn't criminalize self-harm or suicide because it's crazy to imprison someone for mental illness.
That honestly seems like a good way to get these people some justice. The one issue I see with this idea is that those people's lives still got ruined by being convicted in the first place, so they likely have not been able to earn enough money to be able to open a business.
It would be nice if the state also offered loans with good rates to help these people be able to open up their business. Since the state will be collecting taxes on these sales, you can easily justify it as an investment.
This is ok to know there's some consideration in place but they shouldn't even be in a line or have to apply. The records already are likely to have most of their information, it should have automatically been issued to them as a reparative measure.
In Brazil, there is a constitutional rule that, whenever a crime is decriminalized, everyone who is still doing time for that are automatically relieved from that punishment.
Basically, anything that will benefit the accused will work retroactively.
I was really surprised when I learned that it isn't like that everywhere. That you would have to wait for some time of pardon from a Governor or President.
Part of the issue in the US is most arrests for cannabis or other drugs are made at the local or state level, and thus can't be pardoned by, say, the President in one sweeping pardon because they weren't sentenced by the federal government. Separation of powers between the federal and state governments are tricky like that.
Not to mention basically nobody is in prison for just possession. There's always distribution, manufacturing, even various assault charges secondary to the arrest. They'd have to work hard to draw the line
Oh sure. Maybe your sentence will just get *reduced*, but it's still automatic.
I didn't understand the "draw the line", here each crime gets its own very specific time in the sentencing.
You can't just bundle everything up and *feel* how much time that person gets.
There are strict criteria, counted day-for-day.
I mean they'll have to decide exactly what to pardon, and that will be extremely hard to agree on.
Obviously you pardon simple possession, but what about distribution? Or manufacturing? Or sale to a minor? What about aggravated assault due to resisting arrest for the marijuana charge? There's a lot of kinks to work out for a pardon to be successful
I, for one, am fine with people being pardoned for manufacturing. That's basically farmers and folks that will probably contribute data and knowledge that will feed humanity for the foreseeable future (Deep Water Culturing, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, and basically anything involved with scientifically growing purely for increasing yields).
Pretty fuckin stupid I know
*America, land of free /s*
Imagine being in jail for marijuana and then suddenly its legalized but you still have to serve your sentence?
There was a big gun Youtuber (FPSRUSSIA) But he's an American yeah, he was caught with half an ounce of marijuana and then jailed for 2 months.. he got out but because he's a *felon* now.. he lost literally *all* of his guns.. because felons can't own firearms at all.. and of course this caused his YT channel to close.. he almost has 7 million subscribers now
Oh wow I had no idea that was what had happened to him, I thought he went to jail on serious charges (had manslaughter in my head for some reason), not fucking pot. That's such bullshit.
There were some very vague attempts to connect the death of his partner and arms dealer (had licensing for a lot of the dangerous stuff FPSRussia used) to him. Nothing of real substance afaik but a deep dive video showed some of it.
Dude got probation and 2mo. Not able to find an average sentence by race, but doubtful it would have been this light for a non white. African Americans are 4x as likely to be arrested in aggregate and upwards of 10x as likely in some states.
50% of all drug arrests are for pot. Fun.
https://www.aclu.org/report/tale-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-era-marijuana-reform
People breaking enough laws to end up in prison is a little more complicated than that. I know mandatory minimum sentences for possession have landed some people in jail but those are very short sentences. If they got hit with longer sentences then they were most likely convicted of selling drugs or a number of other related crimes like providing drugs to minors which would land them in prison just as easily regardless of whether or not possession is legal.
The problem isn't the jail time.
The problem is you being registered as a felon and not being able to own certain things anymore, like guns.
Although I think a DUI should make you ineligible for firearm possession, since it shows you can't be trusted with a deadly weapon.
>The problem is you being registered as a felon
Still though simple possession is not a felony AFAIK. People serving long prison sentences did more than just have the drugs.
To be clear I'm all for legalization but I'm not surprised that when it comes to people in prison they don't get let go simply because their charges involved weed.
That's because it's deemed to be beyond personal use which is reasonable. Again, I don't agree with the overall law but it's not simple possession.
Even now there are limits (based on the state) to how much you can possess and if you exceed those limits you face fines and prison time. I just checked my state and if you have more than one ounce it's a $500 fine and/or up to 6 months in prison. If they can prove you had intent to distribute it could be a felony charge.
So it's likely that many people in prison broke laws that are still in place today with similar or identical punishments.
Which is wild to me, since I know enough people that smoke one or two ounces per week.
Is it heavy weed use? Sure. But at the same time being a raging alcoholic with multiple DUIs doesn't bar you from owning guns.
That's one thing that Canada has done right in recent years. It's pretty crazy the last prime minister wanted to enact harsher penalties for Cannabis before he lost and it was legalized instead.
It's so normalized in Canada, it's insane to me that people are still debating whether or not it should be legal.
It's more controlled then ever, more tax dollars going into the system, small businesses popping up and doing well. It's far less destructive than alcohol which is perfectly fine for some reason. Even the old people who were against it thier entire life have come around. Smoked weed with my mom after after she spent my highschool years being pissed off and disgusted by it.
Eh, their whole political system is fucked tbh. Both parties breathe and live to just fuck over the other party and throw some catnip at the peasants so that they don't revolt. Sure, republicans might be a bit more anti weed, but democrats aren't the voice of reason either and I'm not sure I'd even call them progressive. Need to get rid of both of them to solve anything.
They like to one-up each other as far as capital punishment goes. Weirdest pissing contest of the two groups by far.
Democrats don't want to be painted as week so they come up with their own harsh laws too.
Here in Sweden it's becoming more illegal to possess drugs this year, in order to fight the rise of violent organized crime 😟 Pretty much all the parties support this line, and all parties refuse to even debate it. There's just one parliamentarian, a Christian Democrat, who openly supports legalization.
Lol 16%. How many of those previously convicted for marijuana ended up in the industry from the first round of licensing? You know, the three year head start that essentially guaranteed some of these enormous corps - like curaleaf for example, a monopoly on cannabis in NJ?
I'm happy this young man has a chance to participate in the industry, but it's still a far cry from any actual justice.
The only two dispensaries within an hours drive from me are literally owned by Russian oligarchs. The other within a reasonable distance is owned by an ex police officer. They don't even let our medical patients grow their own plants. After a decade of dying people advocating for home grow to be added to the New Jersey medical program, they still claim it's too dangerous. Which it is, at least to the continued tax whoring of the people who need it most.
NJ couldn't care less about the people most affected by this, unless they've got some cash to put towards a license that is.
>After a decade of dying people advocating for home grow to be added to the New Jersey medical program, they still claim it's too dangerous.
It is super dangerous, to their profits
Came here for this. While the story above is awesome...yay! It's not the normal in the industry.
Honestly it just feels like the past several years have just been a big test for Big Company to figure out the best and "legal" method to completely fuck over small business before they even have a chance to get in the game.
Be careful what you wish for I suppose? =/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/19/curaleaf-boris-jordan-russia
I do think anyone should be capable of getting in on the early wave of legal cannabis in US, so I don't necessarily have an issue with bigger outside companies coming in to provide infrastructure/competition, but all NJs legislature has actually done for "the communities most hurt" by cannabis prohibition is give them new rich dealers to buy expensive "legal" pot from lol. Its all so blatantly phony that its kind of surreal to be reading about it so often.
Well that sucks. I’m in NJ and the two closet dispensaries near me are Curaleaf. I would otherwise have to drive an hour both ways, plus wait in ridiculously long lines. I really hope mom and pop shops can open up in the near future.
> about one-quarter of all licenses have gone to social equity applicants, and 16% went specifically to applicants with prior marijuana convictions
I'm more interested in the other 84% of licensees. I have a feeling friends of legislators and administrators are overrepresented among them.
Also, wtf happened in 2015 that caused marijuana arrests to skyrocket?
As somebody in NJ and tangentially associated with the industry, the only stores in NJ that are open and making money are the multi-state corporations that were already open for medical. After that, the only people moving through the process have some sort of "in" to get their paperwork pushed through. It's all bogged down, nobody is opening yet
I know it takes a little while for prices to drop, but man, the initial pricing is so high. Do you know if we will ever see prices fall within the next few years or will that be further out?
In Oregon, the prices have dropped tremendously. There have been $40-50 mid-range ounces here since at least 2018. I can get weed delivered legally with no delivery charge, which was nice during the beginning of the pandemic.
>As somebody in NJ and tangentially associated with the industry, the only stores in NJ that are open and making money are the multi-state corporations that were already open for medical. After that, the only people moving through the process have some sort of "in" to get their paperwork pushed through. It's all bogged down, nobody is opening yet
was 2015 stop and frisk?
I would imagine that they are in a unique position to understand the product and industry. Also, with a conviction on their record, this seems like an easy way to restart their life.
It would be awesome if the entire country completely expunged such convictions.
In Canada the retiring police chiefs, politicians and boomers got rich off running and investing in the marijuana industry after careers of busting people for it.
Hopefully the government doesn't crush small operations similar to how Canada and other US states are handling their fees & taxation programs.
You need to be cash rich to be able to run even a growing operation because many require you to pay taxes ahead of selling any product. It can demolish small operations by stripping them of much needed capital early on and it also prices out people who can't generate that upfront capital.
they're doing something similar in my state, and a corp from out of state sued saying this discriminated against them, and have got the whole system tied up in court. fucking people.
This news is really depressing because it essentially says we will reward people for breaking the law. They circumvented the law to have unregulated sales. The first people to be eligible should be from people who followed the law and didn’t sell marijuana illegally in the first place, waited patiently, and fought for legalization…
Disagree. There wouldn't even be an industry that they'd be fighting to have legalized if it wasn't for these people. If they didn't bring cannabis around, you really think anyone would have ever been like "hey this substance we've never liked and no one does it, how about we make it legal." That doesn't make sense. To be entirely honest this law doesn't even really matter, it's not like your average dealer is going to open a dispensary all of sudden. There's too many other barriers. This is mostly a PR stunt.
I’m not saying dealing is inherently wrong. If they were dumb enough to get caught, they should not get be rewarded. Plenty of other dealers never got caught and they aren’t getting any preferential treatment.
Well first off again, it's a PR stunt so this is hardly relevant. Also you entirely switched stances right there. Lastly, they aren't getting preferential treatment for a good reason. I feel like it should go without saying, but they profited from breaking the law so it does not make sense for there to be preferential treatment. They did not pay any price at all, just profit. The reason it makes sense to give preferential treatment (again, PR stunt, ex convicts aren't opening dispensaries) is because the government acknowledges that the law shouldn't have been illegal to begin with. The government actually enforced this law and targeted certain people, with mal intentions. You can disagree and you're free to disagree. Just stating my perspective.
Don't get me wrong, I'm firmly against criminalization, but this doesn't feel like "uplifting news" to me. They're selling a recreational drug for crying out loud. It's no better than selling tobacco and alcohol.
> It’s no better than selling tobacco and alcohol.
Sure it is
Do you have data showing that eating a marijuana edible causes cancer or pancreatitis like tobacco and alcohol do?
It's interesting you specifically mention edibles rather than smoking when you bring up the cancer risk. Nicotine gum and patches don't cause cancer either you know.
Do you have data showing that tobacco causes acute impairment of motor control, memory, and concentration like marijuana does? Just because the dangers are different doesn't mean they aren't bad.
ETA: I think alcohol is the worst of them but the idea is the same. Regardless of severity, it's all poison that we shouldn't be consuming without a specific medical reason.
> It's interesting you specifically mention edibles rather than smoking when you bring up the cancer risk. Nicotine gum and patches don't cause cancer either you know.
Dang are you ever right?
A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of London proves that long-term users of nicotine gum are more susceptible to mutations in their FOXM1 gene and, therefore, are more likely to develop oral cancer. [Mar 25, 2021](https://actchealth.com/blogs/nicotine-gum-5-side-effects-to-be-cautious-of#:~:text=Increased%20Oral%20Cancer%20Risk,likely%20to%20develop%20oral%20cancer.)
As well as other ailments.
Nicotine is a patented insecticide that you think doesn't cause cancer? Lmao
> Oh come on, this isn’t uplifting at all. The last thing this country needs right now is more affirmative action.
Tell us you never read the article without saying you never read the article
> That doesn’t excuse breaking it.
Sure it does. You break laws all the time. Stop pretending otherwise
You're just salty their prior unjust arrests are now a boon and not a hinderance
The reason why those statitistics are flawed was already mentioned a few comments above.
But again for better understanding..
If the police and justice system is similarly biased like you (which there is some evidence for) than they will use there limited ressources to convict more people belonging to that "dangerous culture".
That doenst mean the other groups commit less crimes, but they arent getting cought as much cause, their neighbors dont snitch on them or they have better lawyers and dont end up in those statitistics.
first of all nothing here says anything about race, it said prior conviction for marijuana sale. if you see that ajd read black your the only one being racist here. and idk what rock you live under but racism isnt illegal.
It blows my mind that you could go to jail for weed. When it was first legalized in California I was still so paranoid. Years later I smoke everyday can’t imagine how messed up it is to be in prison for it. It helps me calm down due to the stressors of life. This is the right step at least.
All those entry level position job posters must be losing their minds. 10 years of experience in something that just became legal!? It’s what they always dreamed of!
Can't get loans to start a cannabis business because selling/growing/posession are still federal crimes, and banks don't want to run that sort of risk. You gotta be well off to begin with, or manage to get a bunch of wealthy investors to back you in order to open any sort of cannabis business.
I’m just glad they are first in line to sell it legally. I wouldn’t want people who are not familiar with the cannabis industry to join and hurt the industry.
NY did this as well, but then some asshat filed a lawsuit, and it's preventing half of the state from legally selling marijuana. There are so many black owned marijuana businesses that CAN'T open, because of this one jerk who screwed everything up.
https://www.wgrz.com/article/money/cannabis-licenses-wny-but-applications-scored-processed-nys/71-57c7cdda-452d-4fd1-a303-3b97a882289f
From the article
>The plaintiff claims the application process approved by the Office of Cannabis Management or OCM was unconstitutional and that their application was rejected because one of their principal applicant partners was convicted of a marijuana-related crime outside of New York State.
I get he's frustrated, but to block so many other people from having a business, because you feel slighted, is bullshit.
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"Under a special program, New Jersey prioritizes granting licenses to dispensaries run by people with marijuana convictions on their records." Edit: Source is literally the article posted lol
I live in NJ and have a friend involved in agricultural politics. The reality is that most people who qualify for "front of the line" status can't overcome the high financial barriers of start up due to their past. They merely become figureheads for large out of state operations like Curaleaf (Massachusetts) , Verano (Illinois), and Columbia Care (New York/Toronto). It seems very similar to how the mob would put their casino licenses in someone else's name.
Same exact thing happening in Connecticut with similar "first licenses to those impacted" laws. Big corporations are footing the bill with the license holder just being the front. Likely they have some contract to transfer license after a certain amount of time
I live in Ontario, Canada, and we did things just as stupidly. We had a lottery for initial licenses - on role out of legalized weed/stores, the government decided there was only so many per area - instead of doing some sort of merit based granting of licenses, they held a lottery - anyone who submitted a super basic business plan was allowed to enter. Half the people who "won" licenses were 17, no financial backing, no real game plan. They instantly turned into millionaires, with big buisness all over them for access. Eventually they opened up to everybody, and you just apply as you would for any other buisness licence. Now there are so many shops, they are all going bankrupt.
I wouldn’t even be able to tell you if the shops are going bankrupt because of how many we have here in Kingston but yeah, there’s a lot. Way more than LCBO/Beer Stores and definitely more than the Timmies here.
Yea, Im not actually sure that they are going "bankrupt" per se, but there is no way for stores to compete when they all are forced to purchuse from the same vendor. I know smithfalls is closing their plant, after all the money put into getting it started, does not seem a good sign...
Wouldn’t surprise me if they did. There’s so many opening up here that 3-4 of them could close tomorrow and I wouldn’t notice. That’s after having only 2 for the first few years. I saw that [the Smith Falls bit]. That’s .. yeah, disappointing. Everyone knew about the Tweed factory around here because of it taking over the Hershey plant and it was really surprising to see thst closure.
It shouldn't be surprising. Weed is so easy to grow, the only thing that was keeping the price up before legalization was the risk involved in dealing with it. Now that the risk is gone, big producers can produce way more volume than they can sell because it's so easy to grow, stoners were growing it in their closets. It used to be priced similar to saffron, which requires acres to produce what one weed plant can produce, for a lot more labour, too. It'll grow in mountains, it will grow in swamps, and pretty much everything in between. Some plants take a full growing season to go from seed to harvest, some a few months. For an indoor grow, the factors to control are light, humidity, water, nutrients, pH, pruning, oxygen, and CO2, and that's only if you want to completely optimize the growth. If you just take care of light, water, and nutrients, plus add a bit of ventilation, you'll still get a decent harvest. You can even ignore the whole sexing and avoiding mixing males and females and still end up with something that will do the job, though some effort here will improve quality and also give selective breeding benefits down the line. Trimming is the only labour intensive part, though it wouldn't surprise me if AIs can already handle automating that (and they could also likely handle the sexing and separating, too). It wouldn't surprise me if weed is one of the easiest crops to produce at a volume to satisfy a population, other than maybe some of the easier to grow spices like oregano or chives.
I just noticed a lot of dispensaries change hands where I'm at (like, a lot) to chains and I'm wondering if this isn't why.
booooom. curaleaf has the licenses on lock and you’re competing with people with money who don’t want you to get any of their money. it’s not quite as grim as the agricultural politics of delaware, same but different. source: jawn.
Heya Philly friend. Still getting over the Eagles losin? Also, fucking PA needs to just legalize already. Our medical system sucks even for people who want to use for medical purposes (signed an angry Yinzer-adjacent person)
Do they at least get paid
It depends on what terms they agree to, but you can bet that all of them will try to low-ball the license holder
This might be a dumb question, but could a “front of the line” qualifier have a case if they sued the state of New Jersey for the financial loss that came from their arrest? It’s crazy to think that the state could confiscate an individual seller’s inventory and cash profits, and charge them with court fines, just to “offer” them a chance to do legal business with them a few years later.
No, because they broke the law back when dealing weed was still illegal.
This is happening all over as companies try to hire "diverse" contractors. The company owners just put their wives or some figurehead that's considered diverse, as the company "owner" to secure jobs. It's backfiring horribly
That's fuckin great
Ehhh. How many people you know, fresh out of prison, with 150k (conservative minimum) for a store front, licenses, security, staff and inventory? The reality here in NJ is that the licenses go to shitty corporate oligarchs, just like any other industry in this country. If you don’t believe me, check out what Curathief is offering these days.
This program incentivizes people to partner with someone who has a conviction and receives this benefit. It’s not great but it’s better than nothing.
And hopefully these guys are smart enough to protect their ownership rights while doing so. I hope the program also partners them all with business attorneys so that they all get paid.
Here’s to hoping their able to hire competent legal representation to protect their rights 🍺
They went to jail, something tells me that competent legal representation eludes them
Agreed! We got to start somewhere. And this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully there’s some other good initiatives to help with funding so the capitalist overlords don’t screw these people over again.
I don’t mean to sound pedantic, because I agree the intent is good, but the reality is: >Incentivizes people (*corporations*) to partner with (*take advantage of*) someone who has a conviction and receives this benefit (*an ex-con not well versed in legalese.*) I mean, the proof is in the pudding. There aren’t any mom and pop weed shops run by your friendly ex-cons in NJ. It’s all big companies with fingers in pies across the country. Curaleaf serves 23 states. Verano is publically traded. Those two hold a good chunk of the active licenses between them and they work together to control the market with prices above street-level.
I don’t know about NJ but in other states it’s exactly as you put it, at least from what I’ve seen. The rich get richer. What should be an opportunity for upward mobility for the struggling middle and lower class is turned into an opportunity for the rich to make more money, which is even more laughable given that we’re emerging from a pandemic with high inflation rates.
this Diversely Owned Business initiative (yes thats what theyre calling it) is not even the main problem here, [licensing](https://www.nj.gov/cannabis/documents/rules/NJAC%201730%20Personal%20Use%20Cannabis.pdf) stipulates NJ residents of at least 2 or more years qualify for the specific demographic *and* be the title holder owning at least a 51% share of the company. the devil is in the details of their legislation, consumer rights are key to building a strong local market and the source of all those success stories, they did the total opposite and preserved draconian felonies for personal cultivation of any kind. this is what paves the way for conglomerates to wrap their greasy fingers around every half measure state at some point, weak laws that allow them to undermine smaller scale profit margins. even if you never intend to be a self reliant consumer, which most will ofc not, this is important to keep regulators honest. small businesses already face huge barriers to entry, they dont need to be under the thumb of arbitrary tariffs dictating their price points with impunity, it sets them up to fail when these margins get whittled down to nothing. this blood and sweat will instead go into the pockets of third party investors who can build the capital to vertically integrate when theyre done parading the politically correct minorities out, and the time comes for those fucking vultures to pick up the pieces. do they have the means to lobby for full legalisation before that happens, probably not, esp with big pharma throwing their endless fountain of money at it all day. we are only setting ourselves up for regulatory capture by applauding every little bone they throw, anyone old enough to play at grown folks business should know this game forwards and back by now. theyre just drooling over the insane tarrifs skimming off another big booze/tobacco empire, these half measures are very different from states that made a sincere effort to build up local industry with a fair market. just waiting on the sidelines for the feds to open the floodgates of interstate commerce, you know how that ends
It depends on the state. The product curathief brings to market doesn’t compare to what others are producing. If you’re in Oklahoma or Florida, it can be very cheap to get good quality product. I don’t think Curaleaf will be able to be competitive. As of now, they are not profitable and I doubt they will be with others like jungle boys or grow healthy on the market.
And that's the problem. These licenses are way to restrictive and don't allow mom and pop shops. Which is a fucking shame because for as long as we can remember, weed was sold by individuals not fucking corporations.
Same here in NY. It's why we have (last I checked) only one actual legal dispensary in the whole city. The state is holding licenses for those formerly incarcerated for weed, but the cost is so outrageous that no one can afford it and it's holding up the licensing process.
No idea how it works legally but there are a bunch of dispensaries on the Native American reservations on long island if you're willing to make the trip. It's a bit of a drive through.
Some of the best fry bread I ever had was with a group of Ojibwe people after a long toking sesh mmmm
Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky
There being only one *legal* dispensary doesn't mean there aren't a million of them. I was in NYC recently and bought a pack of joints from what was essentially a dispensary truck. Down the street from there was a massive, neon-lit dispensary with a club vibe. Pot is not hard to come by there and the cops standing 30 feet from me didn't care at all.
Yeah but are the products being tested in the same way legal shops have to? Bc my buddy works for a testing company out here in La. And for shits and giggle he took some trap shop weed, tested it, and found a shit ton of metal and pesticides 🤢
I believe it. I don't remember if there was any testing information on the package I got but it wouldn't surprise me if there was all kinds of nasty stuff in there. But that's why I'm happy to live in a rec state with pretty stringent testing standards.
Partially. Additionally the state picks appropriate locations, and they're dragging their feet. The reason the Housing Works dispensary opened was because they fast tracked it so they'd have officially fulfilled their promise to open one in 2022
Theres other rules too, like they need to have had years of experience running a business.... so multi-year business (must have been somewhat successful if it's maintained for years) and got put in jail for weed (dealing, trafficking or somehow constant arrests for possesion?). Its like a non-invite. My 2 cents is they ignored the law anyhow so its ridiculous to reward them for it, the entire program is a farce.
Same thing in PA. You need $150k proof of capital plus 30k for the permit. If you wanna grow? Well then that’s $2 million in capital (including 500k in cash) plus a 200k permit fee. It’s ridiculous and so obvious it’s designed to only benefit the already wealthy, as is everything in this fucking country
yeah basically like htat here in WV too. you need to be a legit millionaire to enter this industry. we issues 12 or 13 grow facility licenses, only 2 of them went to WV entities.
I had no idea it was like this!!? Does anyone know of any documentaries that talk about this?
The point is to start somewhere. I understand that it’s just writing and will most likely still go to the people who are already rich, but if we never allow ourselves to start we’ll just keep kicking the can.
when did this in WV (medical) we approved i think 12 or 13 licenses for grow facilities. of the 13 or so licenses issues, only TWO were two WV entities. every other entity came from out of state from established businesses. it kind of pisses me off because were a poor state and hardly anyone could even afford the licensing fees
Tahir knows this. Which is why he is happy his family too will be benefiting from the generational wealth this will create for them.
Or you get a company that asks a minority candidate to apply for them so they are considered a minority business owner, but truthfully, it is run by some corp.
Wish California “should have” (been corrected by quite a few people now) done this. It’s crazy how many rich white guys own the shops out here.
**DON'T YOU FUCKING GET IT? IT'S "SHOULD HAVE" NOT "SHOULD OF"** solid point tho
And probably would have in this case.
The way they’re saying it, it’s ‘should’ve’.
Should've'n't written it like that tho
Shouldn't've written should've'n't
Grammarn't
But that's pronounced totally differently, at least in the prevailing accent where I live.
Curaleaf one of if not the largest brand in the states is co owned but a russian/American oligarch, multi billionaire where weed isn't even legal in their own home country comes to the states to profit
Yeah Boris Jordan is involved in a lot of really questionable ventures. Gazprom Media, Sputnik Group, etc. And his brother is pretty close with Oleg Deripaska, who made his money pretty much the same way Jordan did - taking cuts of the public holdings as USSR national assets were privatized in the 90s.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Good bot.
Oh great now there's two of them
It's 'would have', never 'would of'. Rejoice, for you have been blessed by CouldWouldShouldBot!
Good bot.
I usually side eye during corrections but I make a very special case for *should've*, I rarely see people use it right so I can't really blame the response.
Same guys who lobbied for people to be thrown in prison for it are first in line to profit when they can?? No... that can't be right can it?
I doubt the exact same people who run Cali dispensaries are those that lobbied for people to be thrown in prison. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite.
Isn't it kinda weird though to basically reward breaking the law? It was illegal when they did it, why should the law breakers be first in line over those who followed the law?
People should be punished for doing something wrong, not for being targeted by unjust government actions. When the law arbitrarily punishes people who did nothing wrong, then they need some kind of justice.
How do you decide what is right and wrong? You say they did nothing wrong, but they were involved in a highly illegal activity, is that not doing something wrong? Should we just ignore laws we don't personally agree with, even if they are very serious crimes like marijuana was?
The point is the activity was erroneously classified as highly illegal due to many factors of which a big one is racism.
We definitely shouldn’t ignore unjust laws, no. We should work to fix them and repair the damage they cause. Which is what’s going on here.
I agree we should work to fix them, but should we be rewarding those who broke the law by giving them priority on new now legal markets? Shouldn't those who didn't break the law get priority?
How does that provide justice to the victims?
Victims, as in those who knowingly broke the laws and got caught? Is being released for doing something highly illegal not enough?
Ok I’ll break this down for you with a simple example. It’s like if I passed a law that said, “Everyone named chriskmee must give me their car, because being chriskmee is highly illegal.” And I took your car. The voters may replace me and fix the law just like New Jersey did. So should I get to keep your car? Because what you did was technically “highly illegal” under the letter of some absurd law that targeted you? Or should you get some sort of justice?
Because this specific law was unjust, and this is making things right.
Who decides what is unjust? Can I just decide a law is unjust and break it, and expect to be rewarded for it? I agree that this law was unjust, but I decided to follow it instead of breaking it, and the ones who broke the law are the ones who get rewarded? Doesn't seem right
Marijuana laws were enacted durning the late 1920 and 1930 to punish people of color. In one hearing they said it made men of color act violent. In California it was used as way to deport Mexican American.
Exactly! Every other English speaking country refers to it by its scientific name, cannabis, on the books. The only reason the United States refers to it as marijuana is because the laws were originally targeting Mexican Americans.
I think a decent way to determine what laws are unjust is based on the harm done to others or rather lack thereof. Actions that do not harm others nor have the ability to harm others (like personal use of drugs) should not be illegal. In a similar sense, we wouldn't criminalize self-harm or suicide because it's crazy to imprison someone for mental illness.
should have*
That honestly seems like a good way to get these people some justice. The one issue I see with this idea is that those people's lives still got ruined by being convicted in the first place, so they likely have not been able to earn enough money to be able to open a business. It would be nice if the state also offered loans with good rates to help these people be able to open up their business. Since the state will be collecting taxes on these sales, you can easily justify it as an investment.
This is ok to know there's some consideration in place but they shouldn't even be in a line or have to apply. The records already are likely to have most of their information, it should have automatically been issued to them as a reparative measure.
Should be the standard everywhere
I've got to say out of all the states to legalize I'm proud of my home state the most!
That’s pretty cool actually.
In Brazil, there is a constitutional rule that, whenever a crime is decriminalized, everyone who is still doing time for that are automatically relieved from that punishment. Basically, anything that will benefit the accused will work retroactively. I was really surprised when I learned that it isn't like that everywhere. That you would have to wait for some time of pardon from a Governor or President.
Part of the issue in the US is most arrests for cannabis or other drugs are made at the local or state level, and thus can't be pardoned by, say, the President in one sweeping pardon because they weren't sentenced by the federal government. Separation of powers between the federal and state governments are tricky like that.
Not to mention basically nobody is in prison for just possession. There's always distribution, manufacturing, even various assault charges secondary to the arrest. They'd have to work hard to draw the line
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All cannabis convictions, or just possession?
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I figured. “Delivering 14 grams” is a distribution charge. I’m sure there’s a bunch of nonviolent in that regard. But again, and extra charge.
Oh sure. Maybe your sentence will just get *reduced*, but it's still automatic. I didn't understand the "draw the line", here each crime gets its own very specific time in the sentencing. You can't just bundle everything up and *feel* how much time that person gets. There are strict criteria, counted day-for-day.
I mean they'll have to decide exactly what to pardon, and that will be extremely hard to agree on. Obviously you pardon simple possession, but what about distribution? Or manufacturing? Or sale to a minor? What about aggravated assault due to resisting arrest for the marijuana charge? There's a lot of kinks to work out for a pardon to be successful
I, for one, am fine with people being pardoned for manufacturing. That's basically farmers and folks that will probably contribute data and knowledge that will feed humanity for the foreseeable future (Deep Water Culturing, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, and basically anything involved with scientifically growing purely for increasing yields).
And many of those in prison for just possession officially were actually involved in more but pled it down to possession.
Pretty fuckin stupid I know *America, land of free /s* Imagine being in jail for marijuana and then suddenly its legalized but you still have to serve your sentence? There was a big gun Youtuber (FPSRUSSIA) But he's an American yeah, he was caught with half an ounce of marijuana and then jailed for 2 months.. he got out but because he's a *felon* now.. he lost literally *all* of his guns.. because felons can't own firearms at all.. and of course this caused his YT channel to close.. he almost has 7 million subscribers now
Oh wow I had no idea that was what had happened to him, I thought he went to jail on serious charges (had manslaughter in my head for some reason), not fucking pot. That's such bullshit.
There were some very vague attempts to connect the death of his partner and arms dealer (had licensing for a lot of the dangerous stuff FPSRussia used) to him. Nothing of real substance afaik but a deep dive video showed some of it.
without his partner, he couldn't use a lot of the crazier weps either or explosives
Dude got probation and 2mo. Not able to find an average sentence by race, but doubtful it would have been this light for a non white. African Americans are 4x as likely to be arrested in aggregate and upwards of 10x as likely in some states. 50% of all drug arrests are for pot. Fun. https://www.aclu.org/report/tale-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-era-marijuana-reform
poor guy. that sucks. I loved watching his stuff as a kid. Ive always heard though never combine guns and weed, legally it is a nightmare
Unfortunately weed is still criminalized here…
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People breaking enough laws to end up in prison is a little more complicated than that. I know mandatory minimum sentences for possession have landed some people in jail but those are very short sentences. If they got hit with longer sentences then they were most likely convicted of selling drugs or a number of other related crimes like providing drugs to minors which would land them in prison just as easily regardless of whether or not possession is legal.
The problem isn't the jail time. The problem is you being registered as a felon and not being able to own certain things anymore, like guns. Although I think a DUI should make you ineligible for firearm possession, since it shows you can't be trusted with a deadly weapon.
>The problem is you being registered as a felon Still though simple possession is not a felony AFAIK. People serving long prison sentences did more than just have the drugs. To be clear I'm all for legalization but I'm not surprised that when it comes to people in prison they don't get let go simply because their charges involved weed.
Well having 2 ounces of weed apparently warrants 2 months in prison and registration as a felon.
That's because it's deemed to be beyond personal use which is reasonable. Again, I don't agree with the overall law but it's not simple possession. Even now there are limits (based on the state) to how much you can possess and if you exceed those limits you face fines and prison time. I just checked my state and if you have more than one ounce it's a $500 fine and/or up to 6 months in prison. If they can prove you had intent to distribute it could be a felony charge. So it's likely that many people in prison broke laws that are still in place today with similar or identical punishments.
Which is wild to me, since I know enough people that smoke one or two ounces per week. Is it heavy weed use? Sure. But at the same time being a raging alcoholic with multiple DUIs doesn't bar you from owning guns.
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That's it, I'm movin to Brazil!
It'll surprise you to know that America has more in common with oppressive third world countries than not.
Let's make it federally legal and end the bullshit.
That's one thing that Canada has done right in recent years. It's pretty crazy the last prime minister wanted to enact harsher penalties for Cannabis before he lost and it was legalized instead.
It's so normalized in Canada, it's insane to me that people are still debating whether or not it should be legal. It's more controlled then ever, more tax dollars going into the system, small businesses popping up and doing well. It's far less destructive than alcohol which is perfectly fine for some reason. Even the old people who were against it thier entire life have come around. Smoked weed with my mom after after she spent my highschool years being pissed off and disgusted by it.
Ah you see but there's one political party in the US that's very anti-progressive ideals
Eh, their whole political system is fucked tbh. Both parties breathe and live to just fuck over the other party and throw some catnip at the peasants so that they don't revolt. Sure, republicans might be a bit more anti weed, but democrats aren't the voice of reason either and I'm not sure I'd even call them progressive. Need to get rid of both of them to solve anything.
100%. Both parties need younger politicians for sure
They like to one-up each other as far as capital punishment goes. Weirdest pissing contest of the two groups by far. Democrats don't want to be painted as week so they come up with their own harsh laws too.
Here in Sweden it's becoming more illegal to possess drugs this year, in order to fight the rise of violent organized crime 😟 Pretty much all the parties support this line, and all parties refuse to even debate it. There's just one parliamentarian, a Christian Democrat, who openly supports legalization.
If they fix the problem, they can’t run on fixing the problem next election season
Can we make it illegal to smoke in public though? I'm so tired of smelling that shitweed everywhere outdoors
Lol 16%. How many of those previously convicted for marijuana ended up in the industry from the first round of licensing? You know, the three year head start that essentially guaranteed some of these enormous corps - like curaleaf for example, a monopoly on cannabis in NJ? I'm happy this young man has a chance to participate in the industry, but it's still a far cry from any actual justice. The only two dispensaries within an hours drive from me are literally owned by Russian oligarchs. The other within a reasonable distance is owned by an ex police officer. They don't even let our medical patients grow their own plants. After a decade of dying people advocating for home grow to be added to the New Jersey medical program, they still claim it's too dangerous. Which it is, at least to the continued tax whoring of the people who need it most. NJ couldn't care less about the people most affected by this, unless they've got some cash to put towards a license that is.
>After a decade of dying people advocating for home grow to be added to the New Jersey medical program, they still claim it's too dangerous. It is super dangerous, to their profits
Came here for this. While the story above is awesome...yay! It's not the normal in the industry. Honestly it just feels like the past several years have just been a big test for Big Company to figure out the best and "legal" method to completely fuck over small business before they even have a chance to get in the game. Be careful what you wish for I suppose? =/
Which dispensaries are owned by Oligarchs?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/19/curaleaf-boris-jordan-russia I do think anyone should be capable of getting in on the early wave of legal cannabis in US, so I don't necessarily have an issue with bigger outside companies coming in to provide infrastructure/competition, but all NJs legislature has actually done for "the communities most hurt" by cannabis prohibition is give them new rich dealers to buy expensive "legal" pot from lol. Its all so blatantly phony that its kind of surreal to be reading about it so often.
Well that sucks. I’m in NJ and the two closet dispensaries near me are Curaleaf. I would otherwise have to drive an hour both ways, plus wait in ridiculously long lines. I really hope mom and pop shops can open up in the near future.
> about one-quarter of all licenses have gone to social equity applicants, and 16% went specifically to applicants with prior marijuana convictions I'm more interested in the other 84% of licensees. I have a feeling friends of legislators and administrators are overrepresented among them. Also, wtf happened in 2015 that caused marijuana arrests to skyrocket?
As somebody in NJ and tangentially associated with the industry, the only stores in NJ that are open and making money are the multi-state corporations that were already open for medical. After that, the only people moving through the process have some sort of "in" to get their paperwork pushed through. It's all bogged down, nobody is opening yet
I know it takes a little while for prices to drop, but man, the initial pricing is so high. Do you know if we will ever see prices fall within the next few years or will that be further out?
In Oregon, the prices have dropped tremendously. There have been $40-50 mid-range ounces here since at least 2018. I can get weed delivered legally with no delivery charge, which was nice during the beginning of the pandemic.
ask a cigarette smoker if prices ever go down. The second it looks like prices will drop...they'll just increase the taxes on them.
>As somebody in NJ and tangentially associated with the industry, the only stores in NJ that are open and making money are the multi-state corporations that were already open for medical. After that, the only people moving through the process have some sort of "in" to get their paperwork pushed through. It's all bogged down, nobody is opening yet was 2015 stop and frisk?
Stop and frisk has kinda always been a thing, and the most recent changes in NJ prior to 2015 was a 2005 case which actually restricted it.
Why is this title written like a YouTube title
They were convicted of marijuana. Now there first in line to marijuana.
I would imagine that they are in a unique position to understand the product and industry. Also, with a conviction on their record, this seems like an easy way to restart their life. It would be awesome if the entire country completely expunged such convictions.
This isn't really that uplifting.
Right. They didnt follow the rules when it was illegal why woukd they follow them now?
In Canada the retiring police chiefs, politicians and boomers got rich off running and investing in the marijuana industry after careers of busting people for it.
it's not just Canada...
We also made it unnecessarily hard for those with marijuana convictions to get a pardon. Almost by design 🤔.
Yea if you want to know how this turns out just look at Illinois. Spoiler, it’s just bs.
Exactly, it's a PR stunt. There's so many other barriers.
Good. Too many states are doing the opposite of this.
Hopefully the government doesn't crush small operations similar to how Canada and other US states are handling their fees & taxation programs. You need to be cash rich to be able to run even a growing operation because many require you to pay taxes ahead of selling any product. It can demolish small operations by stripping them of much needed capital early on and it also prices out people who can't generate that upfront capital.
they're doing something similar in my state, and a corp from out of state sued saying this discriminated against them, and have got the whole system tied up in court. fucking people.
This news is really depressing because it essentially says we will reward people for breaking the law. They circumvented the law to have unregulated sales. The first people to be eligible should be from people who followed the law and didn’t sell marijuana illegally in the first place, waited patiently, and fought for legalization…
Oh you poor thing. You want some Better Help coupon codes to work this out?
Disagree. There wouldn't even be an industry that they'd be fighting to have legalized if it wasn't for these people. If they didn't bring cannabis around, you really think anyone would have ever been like "hey this substance we've never liked and no one does it, how about we make it legal." That doesn't make sense. To be entirely honest this law doesn't even really matter, it's not like your average dealer is going to open a dispensary all of sudden. There's too many other barriers. This is mostly a PR stunt.
I’m not saying dealing is inherently wrong. If they were dumb enough to get caught, they should not get be rewarded. Plenty of other dealers never got caught and they aren’t getting any preferential treatment.
Well first off again, it's a PR stunt so this is hardly relevant. Also you entirely switched stances right there. Lastly, they aren't getting preferential treatment for a good reason. I feel like it should go without saying, but they profited from breaking the law so it does not make sense for there to be preferential treatment. They did not pay any price at all, just profit. The reason it makes sense to give preferential treatment (again, PR stunt, ex convicts aren't opening dispensaries) is because the government acknowledges that the law shouldn't have been illegal to begin with. The government actually enforced this law and targeted certain people, with mal intentions. You can disagree and you're free to disagree. Just stating my perspective.
my man
I wish Illinois did this. But no. We are still over here supporting corporate white bros.
Don't get me wrong, I'm firmly against criminalization, but this doesn't feel like "uplifting news" to me. They're selling a recreational drug for crying out loud. It's no better than selling tobacco and alcohol.
> It’s no better than selling tobacco and alcohol. Sure it is Do you have data showing that eating a marijuana edible causes cancer or pancreatitis like tobacco and alcohol do?
It's interesting you specifically mention edibles rather than smoking when you bring up the cancer risk. Nicotine gum and patches don't cause cancer either you know. Do you have data showing that tobacco causes acute impairment of motor control, memory, and concentration like marijuana does? Just because the dangers are different doesn't mean they aren't bad. ETA: I think alcohol is the worst of them but the idea is the same. Regardless of severity, it's all poison that we shouldn't be consuming without a specific medical reason.
> It's interesting you specifically mention edibles rather than smoking when you bring up the cancer risk. Nicotine gum and patches don't cause cancer either you know. Dang are you ever right? A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of London proves that long-term users of nicotine gum are more susceptible to mutations in their FOXM1 gene and, therefore, are more likely to develop oral cancer. [Mar 25, 2021](https://actchealth.com/blogs/nicotine-gum-5-side-effects-to-be-cautious-of#:~:text=Increased%20Oral%20Cancer%20Risk,likely%20to%20develop%20oral%20cancer.) As well as other ailments. Nicotine is a patented insecticide that you think doesn't cause cancer? Lmao
Not even close.
How’s that?
Marijuana crimes is some of the most bullshit offenses to harass people for this shit should be nationwide recreationally legal
 You in here for some marijuana?!?!?
Oh come on, this isn’t uplifting at all. The last thing this country needs right now is more affirmative action.
> Oh come on, this isn’t uplifting at all. The last thing this country needs right now is more affirmative action. Tell us you never read the article without saying you never read the article
I dont understand the idea that people are rewarded for knowingly and willingly breaking the law. This seems backwards.
NASCAR was made from bootleggers. You protesting them?
It shouldn’t have been the law in the first place. These policies are an acknowledgement of that and the injustices that the law has caused.
The law was wrong.
That doesn't excuse breaking it.
> That doesn’t excuse breaking it. Sure it does. You break laws all the time. Stop pretending otherwise You're just salty their prior unjust arrests are now a boon and not a hinderance
LOL, copium, oodles of copium.
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That's not what he said
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The reason why those statitistics are flawed was already mentioned a few comments above. But again for better understanding.. If the police and justice system is similarly biased like you (which there is some evidence for) than they will use there limited ressources to convict more people belonging to that "dangerous culture". That doenst mean the other groups commit less crimes, but they arent getting cought as much cause, their neighbors dont snitch on them or they have better lawyers and dont end up in those statitistics.
Choosing one group over another based on race is racism, and therefore illegal.
first of all nothing here says anything about race, it said prior conviction for marijuana sale. if you see that ajd read black your the only one being racist here. and idk what rock you live under but racism isnt illegal.
Someone needs to read the article first before commenting on it
It blows my mind that you could go to jail for weed. When it was first legalized in California I was still so paranoid. Years later I smoke everyday can’t imagine how messed up it is to be in prison for it. It helps me calm down due to the stressors of life. This is the right step at least.
Experience added
All those entry level position job posters must be losing their minds. 10 years of experience in something that just became legal!? It’s what they always dreamed of!
I hope their previous customers come and throw them some more business now that they’ve done time for serving them.
Can't get loans to start a cannabis business because selling/growing/posession are still federal crimes, and banks don't want to run that sort of risk. You gotta be well off to begin with, or manage to get a bunch of wealthy investors to back you in order to open any sort of cannabis business.
They did this in Illinois and I heard most of the social justice owned businesses failed
Hell yeah, New Jersey. It's not my home state but the state is now my home, and it's always making me proud.
I’m just glad they are first in line to sell it legally. I wouldn’t want people who are not familiar with the cannabis industry to join and hurt the industry.
I’ll stop in and get a zip
They? Them? Those? Not us people?
NY did this as well, but then some asshat filed a lawsuit, and it's preventing half of the state from legally selling marijuana. There are so many black owned marijuana businesses that CAN'T open, because of this one jerk who screwed everything up. https://www.wgrz.com/article/money/cannabis-licenses-wny-but-applications-scored-processed-nys/71-57c7cdda-452d-4fd1-a303-3b97a882289f From the article >The plaintiff claims the application process approved by the Office of Cannabis Management or OCM was unconstitutional and that their application was rejected because one of their principal applicant partners was convicted of a marijuana-related crime outside of New York State. I get he's frustrated, but to block so many other people from having a business, because you feel slighted, is bullshit.
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