happy anniversary it's been one year since New Jersey welcomed its first legal recreational Cannabis sales over a dozen medical pot dispensaries got the green light to start selling adult use recreational Cannabis there are now twice as many dispensaries that sell recreational Cannabis 25 as of Thursday but all of them were medical dispensaries first before expanding to the adult use market now one year in there are still no recreational only sites in the state and even more concerning there are no recreational Cannabis businesses owned by women or black residents these challenges have in turn resulted in one lawmaker calling to disband the commission that's overseeing cannabis regulations in the state but the Cannabis Regulatory Commission says it's done good work awarding more than a thousand licenses challenges also come at a local level for business owners where councils and committees have the final say over where businesses can go and who get selected for coveted approvals so could all this red tape be undermining efforts at Social equity in the still new industry and where does the industry stand now and where is it going in year two Melissa Rose Cooper reports honestly it's it's amazing uh it's like a roller coaster since we turned recreational one Sunny artraker general manager of zenleaf Elizabeth hopes doesn't slow down anytime soon a year ago the dispensary was one of 12 officially opening its doors for recreational marijuana sales in New Jersey and since then our tracker says sales have been non-stop we're always getting new people in and now that the weather is getting better we're going to get all the people flying in because we get all the airport traffic so it's just consistent there are now 25 dispensaries selling recreational Cannabis across the state that's double the amount from a year ago but all of them were initially medical dispensaries before the Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved their expansion into the adult use Market a major concern for some since social Equity applicants and those impacted by the criminalization of marijuana are supposed to be prioritized I think there was a built-in disadvantage by giving the medical of operators the first mover advantage and those entities were almost 100 pretty much 100 percent white and therefore that that that built in equity in to the way it was rolled out um so even with the pieces that were built into the law I think it remains to be seen another issue for many small applicants funding the state Economic Development Authority is now offering grants of two hundred fifty thousand dollars to help cover the cost of legal fees and other expenses related to getting into the Cannabis industry shirelli Patel founder of the legal firm believes responsibly says more funding is still needed especially when it comes to securing a location the bulk of 70 plus 70 plus of towns that have opted out so real estate's really limited zoning makes it really restrictive and so if you can't afford like these Hefty deposits because or else it's so expensive experts predict cannabis could become a billion dollar industry in the next few years with the state raking in roughly 20 million dollars last year from recreational sales tax alone to date more than 1100 licenses have been awarded but Senator Vin gopal believes the state's cannabis Regulatory Commission isn't doing enough he also criticized the crc's decision to renew a license for the dispensary cure relief just days after they had initially rejected the application when we see the CRC cancel their May meeting but hold an emergency meeting for a corporation that's violating collective bargaining rights and I've got countless small businesses throughout my district in the state that are waiting to just get on an agenda with no Clarity something's not working he plans on introducing legislation that would take control of the state's cannabis industry from the CRC placing it instead in either the department of health or Department of Treasury I've got towns reaching out to me out of frustration and the CRC is not working with them not providing Clarity and then they go ahead and cancel their main meeting to catch up on paperwork I can't comment on pending legislation but what I can say is that in the two years that the Cannabis Regulatory Commission has been operational we have done tremendous work we have set up a brand new state agency some scratch and we've tripled the number of medical dispensaries that are open to patients and we've started opening up the adult use Market to to recreational consumers all while doing so with intention and with the public at our side Advocates say they're happy to see how far the Cannabis industry has come and they're hoping more smaller businesses will soon be able to open their doors for recreational sales as well for NJ hotline news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper