Green Party of New Jersey and Green Party of Ocean County Oppose Lacey Township’s Policy on Marijuana Sales: Second Reading of Ordinances Takes Place on Thursday, August 27th

“Lacey Township in Ocean County, New Jersey is a model of what not to do on the issue of marijuana,” said Barry Bendar, vice-chair of the Ocean County Green Party. “ It is ethically wrong to restrict sales of medicinal marijuana to the industrial park as if it has some kind of stigma and also wrong to prohibit its sale for recreational use”.

On Thursday, August 27th at  6:30 pm, the Lacey Township Committee will vote on the 2nd reading of ordinances 2020-14 and 2020-15 to limit the sale of medical marijuana to the industrial park and to ban the sale of recreational marijuana anywhere in town.

This violates the spirit of the law allowing for dispensing and purchasing medical marijuana and violates the promise made by Governor Murphy and currently being debated by the state legislature to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.

“It also violates the platform for the Green Party US and the Green Party of New Jersey,” said Madelyn Hoffman, GPNJ Communications Chair and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020. “Our platform calls for the legalization of marijuana for all purposes.”

Ironically, many who fear the sale of marijuana have no such fear when it comes to the sale of alcohol, even though alcohol has far more negative effects on human health, especially on the kidney and liver. Marijuana, on the other hand, has been known to provide comfort to many for myriad reasons — relief of pain caused by cancer treatment, battling depression, glaucoma, and many other physical ailments.

GPNJ and the Green Party of Ocean County are calling on all concerned residents to attend Thursday night’s meeting to speak out against these ill-advised ordinances.