New Jersey Regulators Reverse Their Decision and Approve Curaleaf’s Recreational Marijuana License renewal-with Conditions

Let me make this very clear–it is time that we favor people over profits. It is time to put people before profits .”

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

Curaleaf will continue to sell recreational cannabis in all its New Jersey locations, after state cannabis regulators overturned a decision made on Thursday that would have severely limited the places where the company could sell weed.

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Curaleaf’s request to continue to grow and sell recreational marijuana. The latest vote, which grants the company five annual licenses with certain conditions, came just hours after Curaleaf employees rallied in Trenton to protest Thursday’s vote.

The commission approved the licenses with four votes in favor and one against–commissioner Charles Barker–and no discussion. The meeting lasted for seven minutes.

Only one member of the commission, Samuel Delgado voted last week to renew Curalef’s licenses.

Curaleaf did not respond immediately to a comment request.

Dianna Houneou is the chair of the commission. She said that Curaleaf, by its next meeting, must show that it is in fact bargaining with unionized employees, testify under oath about its “activities” and “tactics”, produce documents regarding its plans to modify New Jersey operations and provide information about hiring employees and vendors who meet “certain criteria.”

Houneou stated that if Curaleaf does not meet these requirements by the next scheduled meeting on June 1, the board may impose penalties including fines or revocations of licenses renewed.

Many people today joined our protest in front of the NJ CRC office! We thank everyone who has supported us by calling their local representatives and using their voices. We will continue to push forward and aggressively pursue the renewal of our licences. $CURA $CURLF https://t.co/bTp4IP4mj0

Boris Jordan (@Boris_Jordan April 17, 2020

The commissioners who abstained or voted against Curaleaf’s licenses on Thursday expressed their displeasure with the company’s struggle with unionization attempts and the transparency Curaleaf had shown to the state.

Krista Nash, the commissioner for labor relations in New York State, said on Monday that last week’s vote was a wakeup call to companies who “didn’t understand or appreciate their responsibilities as it relates to labor relations.”

She said, “If this meeting reminded companies of their obligations, then CRC has done its work.” “I want to be very clear: It is time we put people before profits.”

Nash said that New Jersey’s legalization of marijuana law includes specific labor provisions that cannabis companies must follow. These include maintaining a labor peace agreement and negotiating a contract in 200 days after workers vote to unionize. She made similar remarks at the meeting on Thursday.

She said that her decision was made last week based on the public testimony of Curaleaf employees and union organizers, who claimed the company wasn’t following the law.

“At this point, the cannabis industry is at a crossroads in this state.” She said that either we follow the law to protect the hard-working people of New Jersey, who are seeking fair wages and conditions of work, or we ignore the mandates and reward bad behavior for profit and money.

Curaleaf critics and cannabis advocates were stunned by the rejection of Curaleaf licenses last week. Cannabis insiders say the reversal on Monday was the result of meetings with Curaleaf’s executives and commission members.

If the Commission had not approved annual licenses for Curaleaf, recreational sales at Curaleaf Bellmawr Park and Edgewater Park would have stopped on Friday. The Bordentown store would not have been affected.

This article was originally published by New Jersey Monitor.