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CANNABIS: Thanks and Patience


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

2/21/2023

Contents:


CANNABIS: Thanks and Patience

The Week that Was - Council But Not Much Else

Making the Public Aware of Advisory Board Plans

This Week in Teaneck

Finally, Township Calls for Site Plan Rev Advisory Board Members


Announcements


NJDEP Environmental Justice - 2/23

Black History Month Lectures

Advisory Board Applications


Contacting Teaneck Voices

CANNABIS: Thanks and Patience

At the Council meeting on Tuesday, February 14

 

·       The Council let every member of the audience who wanted to speak at G&W, do so. Thank you, Councilmembers!


·       The individuals who spoke were articulate, communicative and clearly believed their Council was listening to and hearing them. Thank you, Participants!

 

This kind of exchange between the Councilmembers and their Constituents is exactly what we need here in Teaneck.

 

Unfortunately, the primary topic of the G&W exchange – legal Cannabis – is complex, confusing, has a history of illegality, is new and unknown in Teaneck, and is cloaked in high emotions.

 

How did we get here? In the November 2020 election, legalization won the approval of voters in 562 of 565 municipalities in New Jersey. When Governor Murphy signed the legislation in February 2021 to legalize recreational cannabis in New Jersey, municipalities were given 180 days to decide between two choices:

 

·       Opt-in, in which case the municipality committed itself to supporting at least 1 of the 6 cannabis activities now legal. The key “pressure point” of the Opt-in alternative is that it requires an Opt-in municipality to continue to operate the cannabis industry for 5 years. NO WAY OUT.


·       Opt-out, the choice of the majority of NJ municipalities allows an Opt-out municipality to enter the cannabis industry at any time. For many municipalities’ leaders this choice made the most sense. It would allow them to research other towns and states that were operating legalized cannabis activities, assess their residents’ feelings and preferences, and write their own ordinances and regulations.


·       Despite this overwhelming evidence of recreational marijuana support, many local governments chose to opt out. Only 80 municipalities (14+%of the 565 municipalities) opted-in by the State deadline in 2021.


·       So 80 municipalities, of which Teaneck is 1, are now required to deal with recreational cannabis for 5 years. The other 485 municipalities will enter the cannabis industry if and when they are ready.

 

 

TEANECK’S PREVIOUS COUNCIL DECIDED TO OPT-IN TO BRING IN THE 2% TAX MONIES THAT THE STATE LAW ALLOWS

 

So Teaneck’s present Council was presented with a fait accompli! They have no choice but to deal with it. And Teaneck no longer has an option to opt out!

 

Teaneck Voices Considerations:

 

·       We the residents, teachers, students, merchants, Council, its administration, Board of Education, and its administration need to know what is happening in municipalities in the states that have been operating under legalized recreational laws and regulations.

·       This same group needs to know and understand the federal laws and regulations that can supersede state law and thus control the municipal cannabis industry

  • For instance, at present NJ State Regulations do not specify distance of marijuana facility from a school. However, federal law requires any cannabis facility to adhere to federal Drug-Free Zone Regulations, where 1000 feet is required in the state of NJ.


·       Teaneck Voices suggests the Manager1) assemble a Cannabis Inquiry Task Force, made up of representatives from each of the above groups, to gather anecdotal information from their peers in municipalities in states like Colorado, 2) establish a firm time line and due date (perhaps a month hence) when the Task Force will present its findings at a Special Joint Council and Board of Education Meeting, 3) Council then should conduct a Cannabis a policy-making meeting in a public workshop session.

 

Teaneck Voices has begun the anecdotal research by conducting a brief interview with a 51-year-old teacher with over 20 years of experience who teaches in a bi-lingual Middle School in Boulder, Colorado. Here it is:

 

           Q.       NJ has legalized cannabis and Teaneck has opted-in to enter the industry. Parents are very anxious about the impact on their kids. As a middle-school teacher, what are your thoughts and experiences with its impact on kids in Colorado?


           A.       Our experience in Boulder has been mixed. I would say that legalizing marijuana made it lose some of the taboo so more people (kids included) are doing it. It wasn’t catastrophic, but I have some concerns. One of the biggest challenges is the rise of vaping. Kids can easily smoke marijuana or tobacco without the give-away smell, using easily hidden devices. I’d recommend focusing on controls on edibles (because the dosage can be so easily misjudged and because the products can easily fall into the hands of children) and on THC vaping products.


           Q.       I seem to remember that you initially had concern as a teacher that you would not be able to tell if a kid had psychological problems or had taken in marijuana. Any of that come to pass?


           A.       Hard to say. I’d say that because we can observe kids over time, we have a pretty clear idea of when behaviors shift in an unnatural way. But kids who are often out of control or who might be using THC regularly – it can be impossible to tell. And with vaping, we’d basically have to make them take a drug test. I mean Covid changed everything, I have so many kids with such high anxiety and other psychological issues. The biggest concern is that they will use marijuana to cope and never learn healthy coping mechanisms.


There is no doubt that however much research and however many work sessions are conducted, there will remain individuals and groups who are not satisfied with the policy decisions. That is the way of Representative Democracy,

 

But like it or not, we in Teaneck are stuck with recreational marijuana for at least 5 years. We need well-planned policies, that are inclusive, enforceable, equitable, and responsive to our diverse population. We must hope that we will then be able to allow both medical and recreational marijuana to be produced, manufactured and dispensed safely with strong, appropriate controls. 

THE WEEK THAT WAS: COUNCIL and not much else

The Week that Was – February 12-19, 2023. The meetings schedule for the past week was a bit deceptive. The Council meeting (Tuesday 2/14) provided some important, reportable news about actions taken and delayed. But the rest of the meetings were mostly not as they appeared.


 A series of IMPORTANT ACTIONS were taken by Council on 2/14, among which are the following:


·       instructing the Manager to prepare competitive proposals (RFP’s and/or RFQ’s) that address the selection of various types of professional legal services and engineering services. The Manager is to present these as resolutions, presumably at the next regular Council meeting (3/14).


(Teaneck Voices recommends that readers interested in what a State Comptroller recommended to municipalities about professional contracts Click Here for access to his 20-page report and specifically its final 2-pages of recommendations. )


·       Eventually approved an ordinance authorizing a lesser amount for the firm that was the single bidder seeking to conduct the Township’s property reallocation study in time for its use in 2024 as ordered by the County Tax Board.

·       Approved the Town’s application to Green Acres (GA) for a Herrick Park improvement project after being told in the required public hearing that the Town would need a Recreation Open Space Inventory (ROSI) agreement with the State before the Township could receive any actual GA funding


·       Delayed the introduction of two proposed ordinances. The first would abolish the local Ethics Board and thereby sending ethics issues to the State. The second would establish standards recommended by the Health Officer that permit backyard chickens. Both issues received multiple public G&W comments


·       Heard a report but took no action on Cannabis – see lead story in this edition of Voices.


·       Notably 43 persons spoke in Good & Welfare – as Council approved several G&W extensions to allow all who sought to speak to do so.


But of the 4 other scheduled meetings found or inexplicably not found on the Town website’s weekly schedule, Voices can confidently report the following

1) two website scheduled mtgs actually never took place

·       The Environmental Commission which had not had a meeting since November 22, 2022 did list a zoom number for Wednesday evening on the website but the new meeting was called off at 7:40 pm for lack of a quorum;

·       The Board of Adjustment special meeting listed for Thursday evening never was real but remained and remains posted without notice of its cancellation;


2) No information about Wednesday’s Youth Advisory Board meeting was ever listed;


3) No notice of the Thursday 2/16 afternoon Senior Citizen Advisory Board’s in-person meeting at the Rodda Center ever appeared on the Town website until Today (2/21) following s Voices call to the Clerk. The Clerk’s office takes responsibility for this miss. Seniors wanting to see what their SCAB discussed last week can just now go to the website to find out; and



4) The Board of Education did meet on Wednesday evening – Readers can watch the 55 minute video Click Here but little of general interest except an elementary school parent’s notice of a bus mishap that ended well. 

Making the Public Aware of Advisory Board Plans/Result

The first concrete code action taken by the new Council was to re-open its advisory boards to the public and to assure that the Town website provided both agendas before and minutes following advisory board meetings. To make this code change actually work will involve the Clerk working with Advisory Board Chairs.

  • Not surprisingly, the start-up of this process has not yet been smooth but the Clerk’s office is, Voices believes, newly-committed to making the information – both pre and post-advisory board meetings - readily available on the Town website. Below readers can see the 2 sections from brand new Ordinance 6-2023 which describe how the new access rules should work. 

THIS WEEK IN TEANECK 2/19-26


Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission (THPC)– Tuesday February 21, 2023 at 7:30 pm by zoom Click Here  passcode 337211. Click Here for this Commission’s complete and comprehensive meeting agenda.


Youth Advisory Board – Wednesday February 22, 2023 at 7:00 pm at the Rodda Center (no other information currently available.

Shade Tree Advisory Board (STAB) – Thursday February 23, 2023 at 7:00 pm – no other information currently available.



Planning Board (PB)– Thursday February 23, 2023 at 8:00 pm Municipal Building (no other information of any kind currently available on the Town website. ). However there is a public notice in NJ Public Notices about a PB hearing on 2/23 for a proposed solar panel canopy at 300 Frank Burr Blvd [Click Here]  

FINALLY, Town Calls for Site Plan Review Advisory Bd. Members


For several years, Teaneck Voices has identified/supported the Town code provisions which require the empaneling and functioning of a Site Plan Review Advisory Board (SPRAB). The ad hoc and often mistaken processes used by the Planning Board to approve site plans – particularly those which developers have advocated to Council in closed meetings - have expedited development plans which Voices believes are neither well understood nor broadly supported by a majority of Township residents.


Until now, the new Council has mentioned but not previously formalized an effort to recruit this 9-member Board composed primarily of residents who are expert in land use technical and policy elements. Please read the flyer (SEE BELOW) which appeared on the Town website today (on 2/21) and see whether you have credentials that could be useful to this Board. If you do, please apply. The future of Teaneck may well depend on this important well-designed advisory board.

Township of Teaneck New Jersey - Advisory Board and Statutory Board Application (teanecknj.gov)

ANNOUNCEMENTS


Contacting Teaneck Voices


By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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