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N.J. Cannabis Regulatory Commission keeps social-equity excise fee at $2.50, approves licenses and fines multiple businesses
Summary
After a closed-door executive session, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission resumed public business to approve dozens of licenses and renewals, unveil a voluntary social-equity scorecard, certify testing capacity, deny several rule-waiver requests, and impose fines on multiple retailers for advertising and on-site compliance violations.
The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission on Dec. 17 resumed a public session after an executive meeting on legal matters and adopted a series of licensing, rule and enforcement actions. Chairwoman Wenu presided over unanimous votes that approved new and renewed licenses, certified laboratory capacity and kept the social equity excise fee at $2.50 per ounce for calendar year 2026.
Acting Executive Director Chris Riggs briefed commissioners on market metrics showing rising sales and falling prices. "We have more than 270 medical and recreational adult use dispensaries open in all 21 counties," Riggs said, noting 3,128 applications received as of Nov. 18, 2025, and a range of conditional and annual licenses active as of Dec. 3. Riggs told the commission adult-use sales rose roughly 12.3% year over year and that October-to-October sales were nearly 20% higher even as the adult-use flower price fell from $10.98 per gram (Oct. 2024) to $8.09 (Oct. 2025).
Riggs also reported ongoing investigations into some testing laboratories for possible inflation of THCA/THC results and for yeast-and-mold reporting inconsistencies, saying staff noticed that "some labs are probably accurately reporting their results and some probably aren't." The commission certified that eight licensed adult-use testing laboratories currently meet statewide testing capacity needs but reiterated it may license additional labs in the future.
Wesley McWhite, director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, introduced a voluntary five-tier social equity scorecard to publicly recognize businesses' hiring, community reinvestment, expungement and workforce-development efforts. McWhite described the scorecard as "capacity based and not comparative based," and said preliminary scoring and a public landing page are planned for Q1 2026.
On the social equity excise fee — a fee statutorily tied to the statewide average retail price per ounce — Riggs reported the average price at $251.06 per ounce and said CRC rules give the commission discretion up to $30. Vice Chair Nash moved to waive a regulation provision and keep the fee at $2.50 per ounce for 2026; Commissioner Mapp seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
Licensing and compliance actions were a major portion of the agenda. The commission approved a canopy-increase request for Atlantic Cultivators LLC, two micro-to-standard business conversions (Neptune's Garden LLC and Plantopia LLC), 10 annual licenses, seven conditional-to-annual conversions and dozens of annual renewals (41 adult-use renewals and 84 medical permit renewals). It also administratively extended six Curaleaf medical permits through March 31, 2026, pending resolution of related litigation.
The board denied four waiver requests including one from a dispensary seeking relief from a statutory $1,000,000 liability-insurance requirement for delivery vehicles and several requests by ATCs seeking waivers of a $20,000 annual permit-renewal fee. The denials were based on counsel's advice that the commission cannot waive statutory requirements and on staff guidance about permissible alternatives.
On enforcement, the commission voted to impose monetary penalties in several matters after staff presented notices of violation: a $1,000 fine for Hashari LLC (INV89-2025) for inadequate age verification and an unapproved vehicle visible at an event; $1,500 for ButtedUp LLC (INV111-2025) for advertising and audience-demographics violations; $2,000 for Zenleaf Nunholly (INV122-2025) for permitting consumers to enter without age verification; $4,000 for High Rollers Dispensary LLC (INV124-2025) for serving beverages in a consumption lounge and operating as a retail food establishment; $500 for Cannaboy Treehouse LLC (INV128-2025) for unauthorized free sampling; and $500 for Social Leaf (INV141-2025) for a boardwalk advertisement that could not be shown to meet age-audience requirements. Each penalty motion was seconded and approved by the commission.
During public comment, small-business owners and industry counsel urged operational fixes and more data transparency. Jessica Marie Villers, owner of Baked by the River in Lambertville, requested reinstating provisional badging for employees to avoid multiweek delays in badge issuance and background checks that, she said, "caused considerable hardship to my micro business." Other speakers asked for deeper breakdowns of sales and price drivers, and for continued public reporting on lab-testing trends.
The commission concluded its business and adjourned at 3:42 p.m. The CRC posted that additional materials, including the full data report and the social-equity materials, will be available on its website and that staff will contact licensees approved at the meeting with next steps.
Provenance: Commission actions, data and enforcement summaries are drawn from the public session (notice of meeting and roll call through adjournment).
