Some so-called “dispensaries” sell delta-8 products, rather than state-regulated marijuana. (Photo by Sophie NIeto-Munoz | NJ Monitor)
New Jersey’s recreational cannabis law can “coexist” with federal marijuana enforcement laws, a state appellate court said in a decision Wednesday.
Judge Jack Sabatino, writing for a three-judge panel, affirmed a lower court’s ruling against a group of Highland Park residents who claimed the borough violated federal law by allowing the sale of recreational marijuana, which remains federally illegal.
At the center of the legal fight is an ordinance the council adopted in August 2021 that allows cannabis retailers, consumption lounges, and delivery services to operate in the borough. A group of anti-cannabis residents claimed not just the ordinance, but the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act (CREAMMA), violated the federal Controlled Substances Act, New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law, and other state and federal laws.
But Sabatino said the state’s recreational law doesn’t violate either section of the Supremacy Clause, which says state laws cannot violate federal laws.
He cited Hager v. M&K Construction, a 2021 New Jersey Supreme Court decision that found the Controlled Substances Act “explicitly leaves room for state law to operate.” In that case, the company was ordered to reimburse costs for a worker’s prescribed medical marijuana after he got injured at work. The company said if it reimbursed those costs, it could face federal criminal liability, an argument the court rejected.
The Highland Park plaintiffs argued that the case didn’t apply because it focused on medical marijuana, but the Attorney General’s Office and borough officials disagreed.
Federal justice officials had advised local government officials to deprioritize prosecution of “marijuana activities” that are legal under state law, and Congress passed appropriations bills that barred the Department of Justice from using allocated funds