CMMNJ Position on NJ Senate Bill S4847

 

Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee
State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
Monday, December 1, 2025
CMMNJ Position on NJ Senate Bill S4847

 

Overall Position:

CMMNJ opposes S4847 as currently written. The bill expands enforcement and political influence without addressing core medical patient needs: affordability, transparency, and the right to safely access or grow one’s own medicine.

1. Enforcement Without Patient Protections – Oppose

•          Directs State Police to identify, investigate, and prosecute “unlicensed” cannabis activity.
•          Risks harming legacy caregivers and low-income patients who rely on non-corporate access.
•          NJ still bans home cultivation, leaving patients criminalized.

2. Ethics Loopholes & Conflicts of Interest – Oppose

•          Allows State employees and families to work for or invest in cannabis companies.
•          Undermines regulatory trust and risks capture.

3. Reduced Transparency & Politicization of the CRC – Oppose

•          Permits commissioners to fundraise, campaign, meet privately with applicants.
•          Weakens CRC Chair and politicizes regulation.

4. Corporate Expansion Without Patient Benefit – Concern

•          Allows dispensaries to convert to adult-use without municipal approval.
•          No affordability guarantees or medical protections.

5. No Home Cultivation – Strong Opposition

•          NJ is the only Northeastern legal-cannabis state with no home grow.
•          Enforcement without home grow criminalizes illness.

Recommended Amendments:

1) Legal home cultivation (6–12 plants).

2) Strong ethics safeguards.

3) Maintain CRC transparency and independence.

4) Patient affordability protections.

5) Non-criminal caregiver/cooperative pathways.

 

Summary Statement:

S4847 prioritizes enforcement and corporate interests over patient welfare. CMMNJ urges

amendments to protect patients, ensure transparency, and legalize home cultivation before advancing enforcement-based reforms.

 

Mike Brennan
Board of Directors, Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc. https://cmmnj.org/

219 Woodside Ave., Trenton, NJ 08618  

info@cmmnj.org

Mike Brennan's Oral Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee

 

Good morning Chair and members of the Committee. My name is Michael Brennan. I am a disabled cancer patient and an Associate Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey. I live every day with chronic pain and spinal injury. For patients like me, cannabis is not a luxury. It is essential medicine. And because insurance does not cover it, affordability is a matter of survival.

 

I am here to express deep concern about Senate Bill S4847 and the harmful impact it will have on medical cannabis patients.

 

First, S4847 expands policing and criminal prosecution without providing any patient-centered protections. Directing the State Police to identify, investigate, and shut down unlicensed cannabis activity may sound like regulatory housekeeping, but the reality is different. A large portion of so-called “unlicensed operators” are legacy caregivers who supply low-cost or donated medicine to patients who simply cannot afford corporate dispensary prices. Criminalizing these caregivers—while still banning home cultivation—places the burden directly on the backs of the sick, the poor, and the disabled. Patients should not be collateral damage in an enforcement strategy designed without us in mind.

 

Second, S4847 opens the door to conflicts of interest within the regulatory system. Allowing state employees and their family members to work for or invest in cannabis companies—even with ethics approval—creates the appearance of regulatory capture. In a state where medical cannabis is already among the most expensive in the nation, the public must have confidence that regulatory decisions are made for patient welfare, not corporate gain.

 

Third, the bill reduces transparency and increases politicization at the Cannabis Regulatory Commission. It permits commissioners to hold local elected office, campaign, fundraise, and meet privately with industry applicants. These changes overwhelmingly benefit well-resourced corporate actors and diminish the voice of patients who rely on open public processes to be heard.

 

Finally, S4847 expands corporate dispensary power without addressing the core issue of patient access. Towns lose authority over adult-use conversions. Corporations gain new rights. But patients gain nothing—not affordability, not access, and certainly not the right to cultivate our own medicine.

 

New Jersey is the only state in the Northeast with legal cannabis and no legal home grow. Enforcement without home grow is not policy. It is punishment.

 

CMMNJ urges this Committee to amend the bill to protect patients, restore transparency, and include reasonable home cultivation for medical users. Patients deserve compassion—not criminalization. Thank you.

 

The Coalition for Medical Marijuana—New Jersey, Inc., founded in 2003, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization whose mission is to educate the public about medical marijuana/cannabis and other plant medicine.