BLOOMFIELD, N.J.
“It’s pretty amazing, exciting and if I get pulled over on the way home and I’m ever asked if I have any drugs in the car now I’m allowed to say only this,” Barrows said, holding up the canister of marijuana flower he had just purchased.
Hagan Seeley, 23, said he had just found out a day earlier that recreational sales were starting and decided to see what the scene looked like.
Murphy said he would be pushing for a “federal fix” for marijuana as well, though it was unclear whether he was referring to recreational legalization, national decriminalization or something else.
Hadi Battice, 47, is a Navy veteran and medical marijuana card holder for his post-traumatic stress disorder.
ZenLeaf employee Destiny Pimentel said she came to realize the “benefits of responsible cannabis use” after her older brother died.
New Jersey is among 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, with legalized recreational marijuana markets.
Ben Kovler, of Green Thumb Industries, which operates the Bloomfield dispensary, was at the opening Thursday.
Legislation governing the recreational market calls for the 6.625% sales tax to apply, with 70% of the proceeds going to areas disproportionately affected by marijuana-related arrests.
State regulators say dispensaries are allowed to sell up to the equivalent of 1 ounce of cannabis, which means an ounce of dried flower, or 5 grams of concentrate or 1,000 milligrams of edibles, like gummies.