CANNABIS

day,” Tompkins said. “I personally would appreciate signage in the facility reminding some of our military individuals against military policy to use the product you going to be selling.”

The dispensary proposal is suggesting what the township mayor called “a heavy flow of traffic” and “then have Wawa, with a heavy flow coming in and out.”

“That is going to be a nightmare there, in my opinion,” said Tompkins, maintaining the area already has heavy congestion as it is. “I can’t tell you how many times I have seen cops in that parking lot because of the issue that is already there. There already is an issue without your business there.”

D’Agostino replied that the Wawa probably has the kind of traffic his store is anticipating for the entire day in just over the course of a couple hours.

In pointing out “we have 21 counties in the state, with 565 municipalities,” Dewey asserted, “I am still trying to figure out why or how you picked Pemberton Township.”

Marks, in response, reiterated, “Pemberton” is “a supportive community, and so far, the council and government have been very supportive to our cause, and they have ordinances in place that allow this sort of business to exist.”

“I feel strongly that over the course of time we can have a positive impact to the community and surrounding areas,” added Marks, with D’Agostino having earlier pointed out that of the 20 people the company plans to hire, the goal is to hire 50 percent of its workers from the township.

However, as the meeting transitioned to public comment, it became harder to demonstrate that there is “a supportive community” with the proposal drawing no support from the residents attending the meeting, with a number of people instead delivering vigorous, at times very emotional opposition to what was proposed.

One woman, named “Kelly,” said that when she hears “security,” to her it implies “danger.”

“Please don’t let it happen,” she declared. “Please, vote ‘no.’”

Resident Leonard Austin called it a “bad idea,” asserting the township “already has got a crime rate” and such a facility would only “increase” it.

“Doors will be getting kicked in,” Austin warned. “There are a lot of hoodlums down the road, from Sunbury Village (a neighborhood with many past instances of violent crime, including gun violence), and they will follow you home when see you buy marijuana, and beat you and your family up.”

As a “medical card patient,” the victim of three strokes said he “doesn’t have a problem driving to Bordentown to get medicine,” because otherwise, allowing such an establishment closer to home, “you are asking for a problem – asking for a shootout.”

Resident Gary Kelly followed up on that point, asking, “How much is it going to cost in police, once crime goes up, because you know it is going to go up?” He maintained the money that would be generated through taxation will simply go to hiring more officers to handle the increased crime.

Resident Michael Harris, who also followed Austin, gave a more point-blank declaration, remarking, “I do not like the idea of bringing drugs into the township.”

Longtime meeting regular Anne Quinn, maintained statistics from Colorado, or one of the first states in the nation to legalize cannabis, show the state “had an increase in crime, had an increase in DUIs and had an increase in motor vehicle accidents,” including “fatal accidents involving people who tested positive for marijuana.” She maintained statistics from Colorado also show an “increase in kids, ages 12 and up, who smoke marijuana” since the drug has been legalized there.

“And I take exception, Mr. Gardner, to your comment that you already got your mind made up, no matter what the residents here have to say,” declared Quinn, who proclaimed she was livid with the idea as both a mom and grandmother. “And we do pay your salary, and guess what? We have an election coming up, and my goal is to remove the three of you (Gardner, Detrick and McCartney [who told Quinn she was online researching her statistics and found statistics also in contradiction to the ones Quinn presented] from the council because you never had the residents, and what is good for the town as a whole, (at heart) when you got elected!”

Quinn called it “appalling” that “council doesn’t do their homework with respect to the gentleman’s presentation.”

“And I do not want this facility, store, or anything to do with marijuana in this town – ever!” Quinn shouted. “It does not benefit this town!”

D’Agostino, during his presentation, declared that “our goal for the community is one goal –and that is to leave a positive impact.” He then provided what he called “estimates,” ones he maintained he has “high confidence” in given that “high-end Tier 1 stores in Massachusetts bring in $12 million in revenue,” showing that the local firm would generate between $100,000 and $200,000 per year in “local cannabis taxes to Pemberton Township.”

“Year one, we expect to generate a little over $100,000 in local cannabis taxes for Pemberton Township, and by year five, that grows to a little over $200,000,” pointing out that the latter estimated figure is based on an estimated $10 million in sales. “And I think it is important to note that by year two, that local tax would be as much as $175,000, and that would equate to an additional $88,000 that is provided to local non-profits.”

The latter is a reference to a plan D’Agostino announced in which Alchemy Botanics has “committed to donating one percent of sales to local non-profits to support their missions,” in addition to providing “community service hours from both their leadership and employees to support local nonprofit missions.”

While D’Agostino called his estimated figures “conservative,” Quinn retorted that they were “pitiful.”

Quinn, in continuing to express outrage, said she never heard the Democratic members of council call for more retail when the town has needed it for a while now, but now they suddenly want to “bring a marijuana store here.”

“I don’t want that for our kids!” she said angrily. “I moved here 20 years ago because it was a good school district, and good place to live! I left the City of Philadelphia for the very reason you now propose for this town! I am totally against it!”

Quinn called marijuana a “gateway drug” and told the governing body that she “speaks from my own experience” after watching a family member experience a “drug issue.”

“It started with marijuana,” Quinn said. “I watched him smoke marijuana, and watched him take the next step, and the next step and the next step. This facility is going to cost more in money because of increased crime, based on the Colorado report, which also states hospitals are overwhelmed because now there are more emergency cases with overdoses.”

Valerie Roohr, a resident of nearby Southampton Township, with grandchildren living in Pemberton Township, asserted that she “also believes this is a gateway drug,” maintaining that in encountering those battling addiction, “not one of them ever said they first started taking cocaine.”

“It always starts with marijuana,” she declared, noting that a boyfriend of hers had been found dead from drugs. “Not ‘sometimes,’ not ‘in-between,’ but ‘always!’”

That death, in particular, she maintained makes it not easy to say “yay” or “nay” to the proposal, declaring, “I am extremely against it!”

“I see kids and teenagers all smoked up in their cars because now this is legal,” Roohr added. “Drinking and driving, you can’t do that, but you can be smoked up, and stoned off you’re a**? And it is OK?”

Only intensifying tensions in council chambers is when McCartney remarked, in a rebuttal, that “I wish I had an argument about sugar, because it is eight times more addicting than heroin,” with the councilwoman also suggest that Alchemy Botanics consider Deborah for a donation.

Quinn retorted that “sugar does not cause drug problems,” and that she was outraged “none of you did your homework,” or that the Democratic members did not consider a “clear increase in crime, ER visits and poison control contacts” in voting for the ordinance to allow cannabis businesses in Pemberton.

Gardner responded that the “reason we decided in 2021 to ‘opt in’ is because we would have control over the number of licenses and locations,” but that caused someone to shout “that is not correct” in light of the council president not mentioning that the township could have ‘opted-out,’ and therefore, it would have not been a permitted use at all in the municipality (with an exception applying to cannabis deliveries).

The council president’s response, however, led Quinn to ask just how many cannabis businesses are actually now permitted in Pemberton Township through the local cannabis ordinance, with township Business Administrator Daniel Hornickel answering there are “six classes of licenses” and a “maximum of two licenses per class” allotted in the local ordinance. He pointed out the local ordinance “established the zones” where such licensed businesses can operate and that there are “limitations on those zones.”

“Right now, the Pinelands Commission won’t permit certain classes of licenses in 91 percent of the town, so that makes it difficult,” Hornickel added.

The business administrator, in also defending the previous council’s actions, maintained “if we didn’t ‘opt in’ and pass an ordinance … then we are subject to the general zoning requirements, which aren’t as stringent” and are “just for retail businesses.”

Gardner, at one point, asked the business administrator pointblank, “How is this (the proposal) going to affect Pemberton?”

“If a business is constructed consistent with the ordinance, and Mr. Marks and his company follow the advice of people who know what they are doing, I think this is going to be a cash flow positive for the township,” replied Hornickel, a resident of Bordentown. “I don’t see how it wouldn’t be cash flow positive. I can only draw on my own experiences with another facility in Bordentown that appears to be very well run with minimum problems. That is my own two cents.”

Resident Michelle Forman, however, called cannabis “bad stuff,” and quipped in response to McCartney’s earlier suggestion, “If you give money to Deborah, can you donate money for oxygen machines for people who are smoking this sh** and can’t breathe?”

But that was just one of the many sharplypointed questions Forman asked of the Alchemy Botanics representatives.

“How much are you going to charge for your marijuana?” she asked. “Are you going to charge $185 for an ounce of marijuana (which she claimed was the rumored value)? You are robbing these kids blind!”

Initially, D’Agostino responded that he “couldn’t speak to what the pricing would be” and that the “retail prices would be highly dependent on where the market is at that time,” but acknowledged “an ounce of legal cannabis in New Jersey is averaging about $450.”

Shouting began to erupt in council chambers, in response, with the claim repeated that the entity was merely “robbing these kids blind.”

Forman continued to persist in asking questions of the representatives, at times refusing to stop and shouting them: “Do you like to smoke that stuff and feel good?”, “Do you want to smoke this stuff?” and “Do you like how you feel after smoking this stuff?”

“I don’t think there are any relevant questions to the site,” D’Agostino responded.

D’Agostino emphasized to those present that there is a “very significant vetting process” ahead of any approvals with the Pemberton Township Planning Board having to hear any site plan, as well as the Burlington County Planning Board (due to county roads being adjacent to the site).

“A very high level of vetting will continue to occur on this project,” he said, pointing out the professionals that Alchemy Botanics retained have been working in the cannabis industry for quite some time, “not only in this market, but in other markets for quite some time.”

“I think that experience is very important to getting it right the first time,” he added. “Getting it right coming out of the gate is very important, not only so it doesn’t have a negative impact on the community, but so it delivers those tax dollars back to the community and does have that positive impact presented this evening, not only contributing to the tax base, but providing back to those nonprofits.”

D’Agostino’s latter remark was in response to Gardner, in declaring he is “100 percent behind” what is proposed, adding that he asked a lot of questions of the applicant because he is the “first applicant for this township” and “we want to get it right and hopefully use your application as a blueprint somewhat.”

“I urge everyone against cannabis to Google why cannabis is illegal, and more importantly, Harry J. Anslinger (a government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy), and you will see cannabis became illegal in this country, not because of medical issues – it is about racism,” declared Gardner, despite the two township councilmembers who had opposed the ordinance last year having been African American. “That is why cannabis became illegal. Yes, turn your heads, sigh, but do a little research.”

That in turn led one man to shout that, “It is about taxes!”

In further response to the current Democratic councilmember’s hints throughout the meeting that they are supportive of this cannabis business being allowed in the township, Quinn quipped, “God have mercy on your soul if God forbid any kid gets hurt in this town because of what you do,” while Phillips declared, “Think about it before going to bed, ‘What am I doing for this community?’”

Ward, given the close proximity of the borough (which previously failed to opt-in) to 6 Fort Dix Road, told the Alchemy Botanics representatives that he “highly recommends you talk to mayor of Pemberton Borough,” while Dewey asserted, “during the last 16 years, prior to us being elected, the town made more steps backwards than going forward” and that while “we do need businesses in Pemberton, I don’t feel, in my heart this is what Pemberton Township needs.”

“I just can’t support it,” he said. “I am being upfront with you.”

But both Gardner and D’Agostino pointed out no matter what the council decides, “this product is legal in the state” and “will be here whether there is a store here or not.”

Pemberton Township Council, as this newspaper went to press, during its subsequent March 1 meeting, voted 3-2, along party lines, according to Hornickel, to issue the letter of support. Tompkins, despite having expressed opposition on Feb. 15, said that “if this thing gets approved,” he “wouldn’t mind a donation” being made by the firm to support township-sponsored events such as the Mirror Lake Water Carnival and National Night Out.