The New Jersey governor’s office has released a video of a tour he recently did at a marijuana business owned by a social equity licensee, who showed the top state official that he’s now growing a strain he was previously arrested with before being able to enter the legal marketplace.
During the tour of Prolific Growhouse, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said he was “honored” that the businesses sold a separate cannabis strain named after him, paying homage to the governor who signed legalization into law.
David Nicolas, owner of Prolific Growhouse, said in the video shared by Murphy’s office on Thursday that “never in my life” would he have expected to have a licensed marijuana business that would be visited by the governor. But while he had Murphy there, he showed him a “very special” strain with a personal connection.
“During my time going through New Jersey’s prohibition, this is one of the strands I was actually arrested with,” Nicolas said. “This strand right here is called ‘Kobe.’”
“My journey in this in this industry didn’t start off as smooth as I wanted it to. I started off on the legacy side. Our company’s mission is to push the initiative of legacy-to-legal,” he said, adding that “legacy-to-legal means to not have to hide what we once were doing a few years ago that is now legal in New Jersey, taking all those risks off of our backs.”
The governor called Nicolas a “role model for exactly what we want this industry to look like—somebody who has been crushed, sadly, on the one hand by the war on drugs and has reemerged as a bright star.”
Murphy said in May that he toured the Prolific Growhouse facility to “see how our cannabis industry has matured since we passed legalization” in 2021. “Entrepreneurs like David Nicolas give me hope that we can build a strong and diverse industry that reverses some of the worst effects of the War on Drugs.”
Meanwhile, New Jersey’s marijuana market continues to boom, with regulators announcing in May that shops in the state sold a record $201 million worth of product in the first quarter of 2024. The state also reached new “historical highs” in sales over the 4/20 weekend, including more than $5.2 million worth of purchases on the holiday alone.
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) officials have also stressed that they will not be letting the medical cannabis system fall by the wayside even as they work to support the burgeoning recreational market. To that end, the commission recently eliminated the cost of obtaining a medical cannabis card.
In January, CRC also approved final rules to allow marijuana consumption lounges in the state where people could buy and use cannabis products on-site. And as that’s rolled out, advocates are hoping lawmakers will take steps to authorize home cultivation—a policy that Brown has encouraged the legislature to consider.
For the time being, however, home cultivation remains a felony in New Jersey, spurring lawmakers and activists to push for a change.
Meanwhile, regulators have also solicited input on how to distribute $3 million in revenue from a social equity tax on cannabis cultivators.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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