Medical Marijuana Business Preparing To Open In Township
Business will grow, process and dispense medical cannabis, with eye toward recreational sales in future.
Franklin’s first medical marijuana grower and dispensary plans to open within the next year, a company spokesperson said.
The business, Holistic NJ, will also have the opportunity to sell recreational weed to those 21 years and older once the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission establishes the rules for that.
But in the meantime, Holistic NJ will set up shop in a Jiffy Road warehouse, where it will grow and process medical marijuana, said Vincent Dominach, the township’s Economic Development Director.
The company is looking for a site to set up a retail shop to sell the medical cannabis, he said.
Holistic NJ is a majority woman- and New Jersey resident-owned business that has partnered with Holistic Industries, a Washington, D.C.-based corporation that has so-called “seed to sale” cannabis operations in Maryland, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan.
Holistic NJ won its integrated license in October, along with three other applicants. In total, the CRC awarded 14 new licenses in that round, from an application pool of about 200.
An integrated license holder is permitted to grow, manufacture and dispense medicinal cannabis. The other 10 licenses were only for growing medicinal cannabis.
Current license holders will have the opportunity to sell legal marijuana to adults once the CRC establishes the rules and begins the application process. Those current holders will have to show that they have enough product to service both the medicinal and recreational markets, pay fees to the state and have been in operation for at least a year.
“We look forward to operating in New Jersey, hiring locally and bringing commerce and jobs to Franklin Township,” said a Holistic NJ spokesperson.
Dominach said the company will have to go through the usual zoning and construction permit process.
Dominach said the Council “has actively encouraged and supported economic development and welcomes Holistic as a new and valuable member of the Franklin business community and believes that due to Franklin’s open arm approach to the cannabis industry, we will soon be welcoming other such cannabis companies to our fold.”
The Township Council in August 2018 expressed its support of medical marijuana facilities – cultivators, processors and distributors – being located in the township’s M-1 and M-2 zones, which are light industrial zones.
The Council in June approved all six of the possible recreational cannabis license types in the township.
Under the regulations, the retail sale of marijuana would be allowed in the Neighborhood Business, General Business, Hamilton Business District and Retail District Overlay zones.
Aside from retail, the other license types that are available are Cultivation, Manufacturing, Wholesaling, Distribution and Delivery Service. The latter five uses are allowed in the township Business and Industry Zone.
Delivery service licenses are allowed in the retail zones if the delivery service was tied to a marijuana retail store.