While some of the biggest U.S. marijuana companies were preparing to join New Jersey's newly legal recreational market, several were running afoul of state security and safety rules for their medical weed operations.
While some of the biggest U.S. marijuana companies were preparing to join New Jersey’s newly legal recreational market, several were running afoul of state security and safety rules for their medical weed operations, documents obtained by Bloomberg show.
Exclusive documents obtained by Bloomberg under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act show that the state cannabis regulatory commission issued citations to seven companies from January 2020 through mid-April 2022, when marijuana sales broadened from medical to recreational. There were a total of 54 alleged violations.
Instead, New Jersey enforcement had consisted largely of cannabis commission investigators contacting medical-marijuana sellers to point out errors, then guiding staffs to get back in compliance. On three occasions, state investigators, watching Zen Leaf store video, documented workers using"fraudulent security access cards." At least twice, Zen Leaf allegedly sold to people whose names weren't in a medical-user registry."If you look back through your list of errors you can see that your staff regularly neglects to enter patient purchases into the registry," an investigator wrote to Verano. The manager responded: The staff was puzzled by math.
Verano spokeswoman Grace Bondy said the company was"required to follow an unmatched level of regulation and compliance" and had resolved any matters flagged by New Jersey."We continue to regularly review all of our operating procedures and protocols to ensure we are following all applicable laws and regulations in the states in which we operate."
The fix was simple, though. Ascend would be in compliance, regulators wrote, if it submitted an explanation and a plan to prevent a repeat. Mark Sinclair, a spokesman for New York-based Ascend, declined to comment on the incident.
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