s Feel Left Behind as Legal Weed Market Boom

As New Jersey’s legal marijuana industry thrives, many medical cannabis patients feel neglected and betrayed. Edward “Lefty” Grimes, a long-time medical cannabis user, relies on the plant to manage pain from severe nerve damage. Despite the state’s promise that medical users would be prioritized when recreational sales began in 2022, patients are struggling with high prices, scarce discounts, and difficulties obtaining specific strains that help with their conditions.

Patients are pushing for the ability to grow their own cannabis, but New Jersey remains one of the few states that bans home cultivation, even as other states allow it. Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin have opposed this change, despite growing frustration from patients and advocates. Activists have protested, using tactics like inflating a giant rat outside the Statehouse, to call attention to their cause.

Patients argue that as the industry has flourished, the needs of medical users have been overshadowed by profit-driven priorities. With less availability of specific strains and fewer discounts, some patients are returning to the underground market or considering growing their own cannabis despite the legal risks.

Advocates believe allowing home cultivation could provide a solution for patients who can’t access the strains they need. Experts from other states like Colorado and Oregon argue that regulated home growing does not harm the legal market or increase illegal sales, and it would give patients more control over their treatment.

In response to growing complaints, New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission is planning town halls to hear from patients and healthcare providers about challenges in the state’s medicinal cannabis program.

Despite the state’s billion-dollar cannabis industry, many patients feel their needs have been side lined. As the state’s cannabis laws evolve, some argue that giving medical users more autonomy, such as through home cultivation, is long overdue.