At a public meeting on Saturday, Princeton Cannabis Task Force Chair and Councilmember Eve Niedergang GS ’85 said the “consensus” reached by the 24-member task force is “overwhelmingly that the benefits of having a dispensary in town outweighed the bad points.”
The meeting, held in Hinds Plaza, drew around 25 residents. Several members of the Cannabis Task Force — a group that includes council members, non-profit leaders, and business and citizen representatives — listened and tried to address locals’ objections to the prospect of allowing marijuana dispensaries to operate in the town.
“There is cannabis in Princeton, and there will be both legal and illegal cannabis in Princeton, so that’s not the issue before the task force,” said Niedergang, who has chaired the task force since its founding in March, after New Jersey voted to legalize cannabis in a November 2020 referendum.
In Princeton, 78 percent of residents voted for legalization, according to Niedergang. In August, Princeton “opted out” of the New Jersey blanket regulations on marijuana after a state-imposed six-month window to decide on regulations, temporarily banning marijuana businesses.
Not opting out would have allowed any segment of the cannabis industry — cultivation, manufacturing, wholesaling, distribution, retail, and delivery — to operate in the town. Niedergang explained that the temporary ban was enacted to give the task force time to proceed slowly and deliberately on the issue and provide sufficient opportunity for public input.
“The issue that’s before the task force is whether to allow dispensaries,” Niedergang said.
Some of the benefits of dispensaries, according to her, include ease of access for residents to a legal drug they may “want or need,” the business community’s desire to bring business to town — especially in light of businesses struggling after the pandemic — and “to use this as a means to address some of the terrible things that have happened as a result of the War on Drugs.”
Other topics discussed at the meeting included allocation of revenue from the two percent tax on prospective marijuana sales, a proposed cap of three dispensaries in the municipality, and zoning restrictions for dispensaries.
The task force will issue its recommendation on a dispensary ordinance to the town council this fall, according to Niedergang, but the decision on whether to adopt it will ultimately rest with the council.
University Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget, a member of the task force, said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian that her role in the group is to understand how the town is approaching the issue and share updates with leaders at the University.
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