The New Jersey Economic Development Authority will host listening sessions in Newark, Atlantic City and Camden with the New Jersey Business Action Center and the Cannabis Regulatory Commission to learn more about challenges, including high start-up costs and access to capital.

The new document states that employees cannot be acted against solely because of the presence of the substance in their body, but that employers have the right to administer a drug test “on reasonable suspicion of impairment.”

Despite demand, the New Jersey CRC said no supply shortages were reported after the launch of adult-use cannabis sales in the state. Meanwhile, two of the group's commissioners spent the afternoon taking part in a roundtable discussion hosted by The Cannabis Research Institute at William Paterson University, detailing how we got here.

At the state level, it's affordable. But at the municipal level — where approval is required by the state — businesses face thousands of dollars in fees just to submit.

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved seven alternative treatment centers to begin selling to adults 21 and over as soon as next month, opening up the market after years of legislative and regulatory hurdles.

New Jersey’s alternative treatment centers and their overarching business group the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association have for months said that they had the product necessary to service both the medical and adult use cannabis markets. Still, the latter market—at least the above-board one—has yet to make a single sale. Senate President Nicholas Scutari is looking for explanations.

According to Cannabis Regulatory Commission Executive Director Jeff Brown, New Jersey operators are about 100,000 pounds light on product to support the new market and the existing medical one.

Applications are now open for cultivation and manufacturing businesses, testing laboratories and dispensaries. They're being accepted on a rolling basis and will remain open.

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act sets a 90-day review goal for business applications, but gives the Cannabis Regulatory Commission authority to take more time if necessary.

In a departure from the handling of the medical cannabis license processes, the the Cannabis Regulatory Commission did not specify an end to the window to submit.

Ten businesses nabbed licenses to grow and four received vertically integrated ones allowing them to grow, process, manufacture and sell cannabis flower and products to the state's more than 18,800 medical patients and, eventually, adult use customers.

The state's program currently has more than 119,000 patients supported by 1,306 doctors and 4,619 caregivers.