Berkeley Will Soon Ban Pot Sales In Township, Mayor Says

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, NJ - Berkeley officials are taking steps to ban the sale and distribution of marijuana within the township's borders, Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said.

Township Council members introduced an ordinance at the Jan. 1 reorganization meeting that would prohibit marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley.

"We want to prohibit recreational marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley Township," the mayor said. "As for medicinal marijuana, I have always supported that use because I have seen first hand people suffer from cancer where the only form of relief was from medical marijuana."

The proposed ordinance puts the all-GOP Township Council at odds with Democratic Governor-Elect Philip Murphy, who campaigned on making marijuana available for recreational use for residents 21 and older.

Officials want to be proactive in prohibiting marijuana dispensaries in the township, the mayor said.

Allowing marijuana sales in the township would send a "wrong message" to children, especially consideirng the township's award-winning DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, Amato said.

"Studies have shown that recreational use of marijuana leads to use of other more potent drugs," the mayor said. "In my opinion, marijuana is a gateway drug. The country is currently dealing with a heroin opioid epidemic."

Berkeley unfortunately made the top 30 list of towns with the most heroin abuse, based on statistics provided by the state Department of Human Services' Division of Mental Health and Addiction in 2016.

Berkeley police arrested three men in July 2016 after a month-long investigation that distributed more than 10,000 individual doses every week with a street value of $100,000, according to a Patch article earlier this year.

Berkeley had 271 reported cases of heroin abuse in 2016.

Photo: Courtesy of Shutterstock