Credit: (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Jan. 7, 2021: A salesperson answers questions at a marijuana store in South Portland, Maine. Cannabis has rocketed to the top of the state’s agricultural crops.
It took more than four tortuous years — and the creaky machinations of New Jersey Democratic politics — before adult-use marijuana was legalized earlier this year. Now, the hard work actually began Monday with the first meeting of the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission.
The commission started the formidable task of constructing what is expected to be a safe and profitable $1 billion weed industry from scratch. That industry will be guided by a new regulatory bureaucracy created by this commission and given a mandate to mend the racial and social sins wrought by decades of biased and unjust law enforcement during marijuana prohibition.