New Jersey Seeks Additional Applicants for Alternative Treatment Centers
Today, June 3, on the heels of the New Jersey Assembly and the New Jersey Senate approving the revised medical cannabis bill, known as A10, the New Jersey Department of Health (“DOH”) Division of Medicinal Marijuana issued a Request for Applications (“RFA”) to operate up to 108 additional Alternative Treatment Centers (“ATCs”). DOH specified that they would like to add up to 38 ATCs in the northern section of the state, up to 38 in the central region, and up to 32 in the southern region.
The recently revised Medical Cannabis Program under A10 removes the vertically integrated requirement, instead allowing for different types of permits, including medical cannabis cultivators, medical cannabis manufacturers, medical cannabis wholesalers, and medical cannabis dispensaries. The RFA indicates that DOH is seeking to issue up to 24 cultivation permits or endorsements as referred to in the RFA, up to 30 manufacturing endorsements, and up to 54 dispensary endorsements. The RFA makes no mention of the wholesale permit.
With the intent to avail businesses of various sizes the opportunity to apply for the available endorsements, DOH is looking to issue one cultivation endorsement in each region for businesses with the size of 20,001 sq. ft. to 30,000 sq. ft.; two cultivation endorsements in each region for businesses with a size of 5,001 sq. ft. to 20,000 sq. ft.; and 5 cultivation endorsements in each region for businesses with the size up to 5,000 sq. ft.
Applications will be available on the DOH website on July 1, and they will be due on August 15 by 3:00 p.m. Additionally, DOH will be hosting a pre-application webinar on July 16 to review the RFA process and answer questions, that may be submitted to the department until July 5. An entity or an individual may submit up to three applications; with a limit of one application for the cultivation endorsement and one application for the manufacturing endorsement.
If you have any questions about this post or any other related matters, please feel free to contact our Cannabis Law Practice Group.