Should Cherry Hill join communities such as Evesham, Voorhees and Mount Laurel and permit recreational cannabis businesses to open within its borders?
Or should it retain its ban on the marijuana businesses adopted two years ago?
Residents will get a chance to offer their opinions at an information session held by Township Council on Monday, July 10, after Council's regular meeting.
The Council's regular caucus will start an hour early at 6 p.m., followed by the meeting and then the cannabis session. Meetings are in person or remotely accessed through Zoom.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Cherry Hill Township website.
For municipalities, the incentive of allowing cannabis businesses is a 2% tax that municipalities can impose on retailers, cultivators or manufacturers. A wholesaler can be taxed at 1%.
Although recreational cannabis still is an infant industry, with only a handful of stores open in the 70and73.com area, the size of the market is apparent in state financial statistics.
In the first three months of this year, recreational cannabis sales totaled $144.9 million, far overshadowing the medical cannabis industry, which had $34.5 million in receipts, according to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Recreational sales in the 12 months ended March 31 totaled $474.4 million.
If Cherry Hill allows cannabis businesses, new retailers will need to play catch-up with those opening or planning to open soon in nearby communities.
Highway 90, on Old Marlton Pike in Evesham near the intersection of Routes 70 and 73, has its annual license and says on its website it will open soon. Sweetspot on White Horse Road in Voorhees (next to Olive Garden) is open now. Daylite cannabis, on Route 73 southbound near Church Road, was going to open in late June, but hit a snag with Mount Laurel Township.
Others have conditional licenses or approvals for locations with local municipalities. In Mount Laurel, for example, daylite cannabis is expected to be joined by another retailer next door, another a few doors down in the old Sage Diner and another down Church Road.
Although Cherry Hill ultimately could decide to ban marijuana businesses, the Township cannot prevent the use of cannabis or its delivery within its borders.
"A municipality can restrict cannabis delivery service businesses, but in no case may a municipality restrict the transportation or delivery of cannabis items within the municipality," according to the regulatory commission.
Smoking cannabis is restricted to private spaces, the commission states. A landlord also can prohibit marijuana smoking on its property.
"Laws regarding driving while impaired apply to being under the influence of cannabis," according to the commission's FAQ on cannabis use.Â
Monday's meeting is being held during the heavy vacation season, but Township Council plans other informational meetings before it makes any decision.
"It will be a very thoughtful process with an emphasis on mitigating any impact on our neighborhoods and, quite frankly, learning from neighboring towns who have chosen to opt in right away," Council President David Fleisher told Council members at the meeting on Monday, June 26.
Recent 70and73.com articles on cannabis:
- Recreational marijuana: How Cherry Hill is moving slowly before making decision to allow sales.
- How Mount Laurel plans to require security measures at recreational marijuana shops in town.
- Mount Laurel Council may put town's first cannabis retailer out of business before doors open.
- Recreational marijuana? Sweetspot, selling cannabis products, officially opens in Voorhees.
- Daylite cannabis store to open soon, as the 'darkness' of marijuana use begins to lift.
- One of area's first recreational marijuana stores to open in April near Routes 70 and 73.
