Support home grow.
Cultivate hope, healing, and empowerment. Take control of your medicine.
Support home grow.
Take control of your medicine.
Support home grow. Cultivate hope, healing, and empowerment. Take control of your medicine. Support home grow. Take control of your medicine.
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While New Jersey became the 14th state to approve recreational sales, it became the first to do so without any form of home grow. Even today, three years into recreational cannabis, growing just one cannabis plant can cost up to 5 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
New Jersey is one of the most expensive states to purchase cannabis – averaging $269 per ounce of cannabis flower on the lowest end option out of 71 dispensaries audited, costing some patients over $1,000 per month to maintain their medical supply.
For the patients that can afford medical cannabis, they also struggle to find consistent supply of cannabis within the NJMMP. Cannabis is a complex plant with varying chemical profiles, which is why “strains” (cultivars) of cannabis are drastically different in effects. Many patients find specific combinations and levels of cannabinoids and terpenes necessary to treat certain ailments.
Different cultivars have varying harvest times and yields. Commercial cannabis is grown for THC content and to produce as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. However, there are many types of cannabis with minor cannabinoids that are sought out for by patients that work better for their specific conditions. The commercial market will never account for cultivars that take 90+ days to harvest or yield only a few ounces. These cultivars should not remain illegal to access.
Home cannabis cultivation is a medical necessity to provide consistent and affordable cannabis to patients within the NJMMP. Home grow regulation must be done in an equitable way to allow patients the medicine and legal protection they need, by taking plant canopy area into consideration, and by removing the excessively punitive measures regarding home-grown medicinal cannabis compared to store-bought medical cannabis in S1393/A846.
Therefore, we are requesting the following amendments to this bill:
Change the 4 plant count to a 10’x10’ plant canopy area to allow medical patient to properly phenohunt for their medication and provide a consistent supply. Additionally, this would mitigate the potential for exploiting the law through the cultivation of massive plants.
Remove the excessively punitive measures this bill puts on medical patients for furnishing their home grown cannabis to others - this should be treated the same whether the medical cannabis is store-bought or home-grown.
ACTION: CONTACTING LEGISLATORS!
Make legislators aware of these bills ((A846 (S1393), A3867 (S1985), A898 (S2828), S1943, & S1944))/ Tell them and their office to become familiar with them, support them, and tell Senate President Nicholas Scutari it's time to allow them to be posted for hearings to help patients access life-saving medicine they need but cannot afford or that ATCs may not sell. Many patients need specialized cultivars not favored in markets geared toward adult-use sales.
Patients should not have to wait on adult-use market expansion for this access especially since 'home grow in every state has shown to have no impact on the business market' and only 30% municipalities have opted into the market.
Growing any number of plants is a felony with a potential five year sentence and patients need legislators to take action on this to help patients better access their medicine and control their conditions.
The people want education not criminalization!
Cannabis Regulatory Commission Executive Director, Jeff Brown, declared, 'This is the year that New Jersey does a billion dollars in cannabis sales.' while New Jersey boasts some of the highest priced medical cannabis in the country. Not supporting patients home growing is simply disrespectful.
IT'S TIME FOR LEADERSHIP to do what's right and post these bills for hearings so that legislators may be properly informed on the issue!
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CALL, EMAIL, OR BOTH!
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11/28/2023: Murphy ‘very open’ to letting you grow your own weed in N.J.
11/30/2023: Jail for growing weed? You must be high
12/13/2023: The need for New Jersey medical cannabis home cultivation
12/14/2023: No place like home to grow medical cannabis
1/4/2023: NJ medical cannabis home grow advocates make progress
1/18/2024: Legislature launches anti NJ cannabis consumer agenda
1/29/2024: How home grow can help boost dispensary revenue
2/2/2024: Patient Supply Chain
2/22/2024: Advocates call for legalizing home-grown cannabis
4/22/2024: Two years after first legal cannabis sales, New Jerseyans still seek home cultivation
4/24/2024: You can’t grow weed at home, so they planted it on the Statehouse lawn
2/20/2025: NJ Home Grow Weed Campaign Progresses as Legalization Hits 4th Anniversary
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EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Source: NORML.org
New Jersey: Allow Patients to Grow Their Own Medicine
Legislation is pending, S 1393, to allow state-qualified patients the option to home cultivate personal use quantities of cannabis.
Permitting patients to grow cannabis at home provides them with reliable, affordable, and consistent access to the medicine they rely on. This option is especially important for those patients who may not be able to consistently afford cannabis products available at dispensaries, or who do not reside in close proximity to these outlets.
The majority of medical marijuana access states permit patients the option to home-cultivate cannabis. These states have seen few incidences of abuse or diversion and lawmakers have never repealed a home-cultivation law. That’s because these policies are working as intended and are in patients’ best interest.
Please use the pre-written letter below to urge lawmakers to hold hearings and advance S 1393.
ADVOCATE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY
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