Two years after New Jersey legalized cannabis and Cherry Hill opted out of its sale, council revisited the discussion in its first public forum on July 10.
No action was taken, but Council President David Fleisher reiterated that there would be plenty of other opportunities for public input. The forum featured a brief presentation and an overview of decisions the township will need to make regarding cannabis sales.
Reaction from residents in attendance was mixed. Some in favor highlighted tax benefits and convenience for Cherry Hill residents, but also raised safety concerns. Others firmly against cannabis pleaded with council not to approve the sales.
Among questions for council: Is Cherry Hill going to permit cannabis sales, and if so, which classes of them? How would the township implement cannabis regulations?
“As people like to make very clear, the use of cannabis has already been legalized by the state, so this is not about, ‘Can cannabis be used by individuals in the municipality, in Cherry Hill?’” argued Fleisher. “That is already legal. Tonight, we’re talking about cannabis businesses operating in Cherry Hill.”
Director of Community Development Cosmas Diamantis ran through some legal definitions of sales. Following the passage of a 2020 referendum, the word cannabis refers to the legal form of the plant, while marijuana – or hemp – is its illegal form.
The difference between cannabis and hemp is that the former has more than a 0.3% concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound that produces a high. Hemp has less than that number. Cannabidiol – or CBD – is another compound in cannabis that does not contribute to a high, according to Diamantis’ presentation.
“Cannabis retail businesses will not be permitted to sell more than 1 ounce per transaction to a consumer, including multiple transactions,” he noted. “ … You cannot grow your own cannabis under state law, and as of now, you are not able to buy food infused with cannabis from a retailer.”
Lonnie Affrime, Cherry Hill resident and CEO of Voltaire Cannabis – a cannabis store opening in Mount Holly in September – encouraged council to regulate the substance and discourage over consumption by adults.
“I happen to think that regulating it is the best way to ensure that children and other people who shouldn’t be having it don’t have it,” Affrime explained. “Cannabis has a lot of laws, a lot of regulations, many of them being a good thing.
“… As a philosophy, we want to have the idea that cannabis consumption is okay, but it’s not always safe, (and) overconsumption is a bad thing.”
Daniel Cirucci, also a Cherry Hill resident, described himself as a “child of the 1960s” who knows what it’s like to use marijuana. He considers cannabis retail in the township a “very, very bad idea.”
“I’ve seen what it did to some of the people I grew up with, and I’ve seen how it led them down the wrong paths,” he recalled. “ …I think Cherry Hill was right in the beginning, by not signing into the program, by not having marijuana in Cherry Hill.
“They’re moving to have it in other towns,” he added. “Let them have it. We don’t need it in Cherry Hill.”
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, adolescents who use cannabis are four to seven times more likely than adults to develop use disorder, the symptoms of which include cravings, withdrawal, lack of control and negative effects on personal and professional responsibilities.
Cirucci also noted that if there were a dispensary approved, it would likely end up on the west side of the township, where he lives, and which he described as the “generator for all the economy of the town.”
“We take the brunt of the commercial development and the traffic and everything else here on the west side of town, and I don’t know that we’re even adequately represented at this point,” he maintained. “But I won’t go into that. But we know that’s probably where the marijuana dispensary would probably be, let’s not kid ourselves.
“I don’t want it, I don’t need it, and the answer is quite simply, no, no, no, no.”
But resident Ray Croce favors the idea of cannabis sales.
“This isn’t about the money, but at the same time, as a taxpayer here of Cherry Hill, it pains me to have to go to Edgewater to buy my cannabis or go down to Bellmawr to buy my cannabis and support those townships,” he acknowledged.
“ … I work in the medical health field. I’ve seen the effects of alcoholism, I’ve seen the effects of drug abuse,” Croce added. “It’s equal, but it doesn’t mean we can prohibit it all the time. There was Prohibition (of alcohol in the U.S.) until there wasn’t.
It’s maybe time to move forward and do exactly what you’re doing, be careful with it, but I think you should move forward with it and approve it.”
The full town hall is available on the township Facebook page and at https://www.chnj.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13970/Cannabis-Presentation_7-10-2023. To learn more about cannabis, visit https://tinyurl.com/bdektfc8.
