Garfield Studies Allowing Marijuana Sales

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Garfield NJ, with the passing of marijuana legalization in New Jersey many municipalities are not sure what the best possible course of action is.  Should New Jersey towns  embrace legalization or shun it ?

One town in Bergen County  has decided to move forward and at lest study the question, Garfield officials have taken the first step toward possibly allowing marijuana sales by calling for a study of exactly where zoning would allow a dispensary.

North jersey media  reported that , this week, the council voted to authorize the city manager to look into what areas in the city would abide by the state’s guidelines regarding dispensary locations. Councilman Joseph Delaney said council members felt it was important to look into the possibility, because the tax incentives would benefit the city.

The city Manager Tom Duch told North Jersey media that ,” the city has two planners that will do a study to look into the zoning requirements and what may be permissible as far as “cultivation and/or dispensary” requirements.”

The data on legalization has not been promising . In the USA , the legalization experience from Colorado is not promising:  Two independent reports released in August 2013 document how Colorado’s supposedly regulated medical system is not well regulated at all. Teen use has increased in the past five years. Currently, the marijuana use rate among Colorado teens is 50% above the national average. Drug-related referrals for high school students testing positive for marijuana has increased. Medical marijuana is easily diverted to youth. While the total number of car crashes declined from 2007 to 2011, the number of fatal car crashes with drivers testing positive for marijuana rose sharply.

On the international front neither Portugal nor Holland provides any successful example of legalization.  Independent research reveals that in the Netherlands, where marijuana was commercialized and sold openly at “coffee shops,” marijuana use among young adults increased almost 300%. Now, the Dutch are retreating from their loose policies. There are signs that tolerance for marijuana in the Netherlands is receding. They have recently closed hundreds of coffee shops, and today Dutch citizens have a higher likelihood of being admitted to treatment than nearly all other countries in Europe. In Portugal, use levels are mixed, and despite reports to the contrary, they have not legalized drugs. In 2001, Portugal started to refer drug users to three person “panels of social workers” that recommend treatment or another course of action. As the European Monitoring Center’s findings concluded: “the country does not show specific developments in its drug situation that would clearly distinguish it from other European countries that have a different policy.”