Cannabis Dispensary Discussion Tabled In Madison Borough

MADISON, NJ — Following comments from several borough residents opposing the introduction of the cannabis dispensary, the Madison Borough Council has decided to postpone their vote on the proposed business.

On Nov. 28, the council heard from the team at 1st Choice Health + Wellness, a licensed dispensary looking to open a location in Madison.

According to Nicholas Dasaro, COO of 1st Choice Health + Wellness, the company is interested in Madison because of its central location in northern New Jersey.

The company hopes to operate a fully-equipped medical dispensary out of a building at 340 Main Street, which was the site of a former bank.

No cultivation or manufacturing will occur on-site, and all medicinal cannabis will be sold in sealed packages or containers, Dasaro said.

Following the initial presentation, several members of the public came forward to express their opinion on the new venture.

The first to speak was resident Rachel Bourassa, who brought up concerns over the zoning requirements, as the property abuts several homes in the Niles neighborhood.

"As I purchased my house in March in Madison we noticed immediately that we had this view of this parking lot and there is absolutely no boundary between the parking lot and our property, so this is already in violation," Bourassa said.

Both Mayor Bob Conley and the representatives from 1st Choice Health + Wellness said that they would work together to fix that issue.

Other residents spoke up, sharing concerns about the security of the building, and how the business intends to monitor its security cameras. "How are you going to physically monitor that security camera? It sounded like it was an off the cuff answer, and it's still being figured out, how you're going to do that," resident Michael Walker said.

Another resident of the Niles neighborhood, asked the council what their plan was for dealing with increased traffic within the area following the introduction of the dispensary. "People cut through Niles all the time… and people fly. My question to everybody is, how are you going to prevent an increase in people flying down the block with an increase in customer traffic," Brendan Rezny said.

In response, Mayor Conley stated that the borough would consider additional speed monitoring to establish a baseline for traffic and speed counts before making any decisions.

Several other residents were expressing their anger over the prospective business, including resident Caitlin Santora, who said, "to be honest, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone."

Santora, who said that she moved to Madison due to its family friendly nature, voiced her concern over the possibility of a "drug-selling store" opening up next to her neighborhood.

Katie Perkins, another Niles neighborhood resident, stated that her neighborhood is teeming with children and that if Madison was going to have a dispensary, why wouldn't it be located downtown, as it is in most surrounding towns?

"The location will make it incredibly unsafe for our kids to walk to school or bike to a friends house, due to the increased traffic. A location that will make the already neglected Delbarton park a prime spot for our kids to be exposed to a substance they shouldn't be exposed to as minors," Perkins said.

Not all of the comments were negative; during the council response, council member Debra Coen expressed her support for the application.

"Madison High School is also the place where I picked up my kids from parties where parents were providing alcohol to underage drinkers, so the idea that this isn't happening, yeah it's happening. This idea that marijuana and cannabis are this evil thing… I know that I'm upsetting many of you in the audience, I understand that, but I stand by my support for this," Coen said.

Council member Rachel Ehrlich stated that she plans to ask the Madison Chief of Police specific questions about marijuana use at a later date in order to get a better understanding of whether towns with dispensaries have seen an increase in criminal activity.

"There is a lot of commentary that this is a cause and effect kind of expectation we should have, but there has got to be data, there's got to be science, there's got to be findings on this," Ehrlich said.

At the end of the meeting, Mayor Conley assured all residents in attendance that the council would listen to their concerns and that all decisions would be made in Madison's best interests. The resolution was tabled by the council, and the application will be heard once again on Dec. 12.