NJ trails legal cannabis states when it comes to this missing piece

🔰 NJ launched legal cannabis sales in 2022

🔰 Still no at-home cultivation allowed

🔰 One measure would start homegrow for patients

TRENTON — Over two years since recreational use sales launched, New Jersey is nearly alone as a state to legalize marijuana while not allowing any home cultivation, in any case.

As of August 2024, there were 24 states that have legalized recreational cannabis.

Personal cultivation was also allowed in all of those states, except for New Jersey and Delaware.

'Nothing away from the for-profit market'

New York launched its legal at-home cannabis cultivation this summer. Since late June, adults 21 and older in New York can grow up to six plants at home — three mature and three immature plants. A 12-plant limit per household was set.

“The arguments of not doing home grow take nothing away from the for-profit market. I have not talked to anybody who is in the for-profit market that believes that,” state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, told New Jersey 101.5.

Gopal has been a primary sponsor of several measures to add a home-grow element to the Garden State’s legal cannabis — all stalled since introduction in January.

One of those bills has bipartisan support.

It would allow patients already enrolled in the state’s medicinal marijuana program to either home cultivate medical cannabis or authorize a designated caregiver to do so.

“Cancer patient or somebody struggling with anxiety — or whatever it may be. I think it makes absolute sense. We can put the penalties in, if anyone tries to abuse it, just as every other state has done,” Gopal said.

As introduced, that measure would set a limit of up to four mature plants and up to four immature plants, at one address registered with the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

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At least two states currently allow home cultivation for only medical use.

Illinois residents in the state’s Medical Cannabis Registry can grow up to five cannabis plants, over five inches tall within their home.

Washington State similarly allows home grow of cannabis plants for qualified medical patients or designated providers.

Since a year ago, Connecticut has also allowed home grow for medical marijuana patients 18 years and older and adults 21 and older — up to three mature and three immature plants inside a home, with a cap of 12 total plants per household.

When it comes to the remaining holdout states, a notable difference between New Jersey and Delaware was that Delaware had not even begun legal recreational sales as of this year.

The DE retail market was now expected to launch by March 2025, according to Marijuana Moment.

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Nationwide, just three states remain with no public cannabis access program — Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gopal said should none of the home grow measures he has sponsored gain any traction at the Statehouse by this winter — he was ready to keep lobbying for support in the new year.

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