Report · Oct 5, 2026
Everything That Went Down at the Last Two CRC Meetings
The CRC suspended a Bridgeton grower, fined a company for opening sealed bags, and set up a fight over the social equity fee. Here’s what actually affects your jar.
CRC special meeting, Oct 5 2026 · CRC regular meeting, Sep 9 2026 · CRC slides · Heady NJ
Most people never sit through a Cannabis Regulatory Commission meeting, and I get it. They're long, half of it happens in closed session, and the good stuff is buried in slides. So I went through the last two meetings, September 9 and the special meeting on October 5, and pulled out everything that actually affects what ends up in your jar.
October 5: Magic Garden gets grow license suspended
The CRC called a special meeting just to deal with Magic Garden Botanicals, a cultivator in Bridgeton. The board voted 4-0 to suspend their grow license starting October 7.
Here's what they found:
- They were growing outdoors without approval, after being warned multiple times that they needed the CRC's OK first
- Plants weren't tagged or entered into Metrc, the state's seed-to-sale tracking system
- No compliance fencing or real security around the grow
- Records weren't being kept the way they're supposed to be
The untracked plants are the part that gets me. Metrc is how the state knows where every plant goes. If plants were never logged, nobody can say for sure where that flower ended up. Magic Garden's CEO told Heady NJ they're getting a lawyer. Their manufacturing license wasn't part of the suspension. This is also the second time this year the CRC has gone this route; Mollitiam got suspended back in February and later lost its license completely.
September 9: the regular meeting
A $10,000 fine for opening sealed bags. Garden State Exotix got fined for unsealing finished, packaged flower and turning it into a new product. Once a bag is sealed as final product, the state treats opened flower as unusable. The acting executive director called it "a blatant violation," and the vote was 5-0. If you ever wondered whether that jar was repacked, this is why the rule exists.
Two settlements, zero details. The board approved settlements with OGeez Brands and Columbia Care NJ after closed session. Columbia Care's violation goes all the way back to 2023. Neither settlement amount was shared publicly, which I think the public deserves to see.
A legit outdoor expansion, done the right way. Same meeting, the board approved Fireplace New Jersey adding 39,780 square feet of canopy in exterior hoop houses. Put that next to Magic Garden and you see the difference: Fireplace asked first.
Second chances for workers. Niche NJ got a waiver on background check requirements for regular dispensary workers (owners and management still get checked). The board also approved three workers to come back to the industry after challenging old convictions that had disqualified them. For an industry built on legalization, that's how it should work.
Seven ownership changes. Six were approved together, including ABCO Garden State, Garden Greens, Got Your Six of New Jersey, Liberty City Weed Deliveries, Authorized Dealer IV, and Aunt Mary's, which lines up with TerrAscend's deal closing a week later. A seventh, The Next Chapter Market, passed too, but Commissioner Nash asked for clarification on investors involved in multiple dispensaries before the final decision goes out. That's exactly the "who owns your dispensary" question I wrote about.
New licenses. Two businesses converted to full annual licenses (Gain Preservation Services, a micro cultivator, and Vibe Irvington, a micro retailer), and four annual licenses went to T-Verde (cultivation and manufacturing), Nutra Leaf (retail), and Valley Wellness (manufacturing). Restore NJ was also on the agenda asking for a waiver of the $100,000 expansion fee.
The numbers nobody talks about
As of September 1, the CRC has approved 1,700 conditional licenses. Only 504 of those have converted to full annual licenses so far, about 3 out of every 10. A conditional license is basically a permission slip to go find property, money, and local approval. Some are still working on it, but a lot of people who got that first approval never made it to opening day. That gap is a big part of the social equity story.
Medical enrollment sits at 43,043 patients, 2,803 caregivers, and 1,556 doctors.
What's coming October 29
The next regular meeting is October 29 in Trenton, and the big item is the Social Equity Excise Fee (SEEF), the per-ounce fee on cannabis that's supposed to fund communities hurt by the drug war.
This one is wild. Under the law, the fee goes up as prices go down, from $10 an ounce when prices are high all the way to $60 an ounce when the average price drops under $200. The CRC has used its discretion to keep it at a flat $2.50 an ounce for 2026. Meanwhile the average ounce in NJ dropped from about $331 in late 2024 to about $251 by fall 2025, right at the edge of the next tier.
The chair said they want industry input before the vote. If you have thoughts on whether that money is actually reaching the communities it was promised to, this is the meeting to show up for or send written comments.
I'll be watching October 29 and I'll break it down after. If you want me covering every CRC meeting like this, let me know.
Sources
Right of reply
I haven’t contacted the CRC or any of the companies named for this piece. If they want to respond or correct anything, what they send goes up on this page.
How this was put together
Written October 5, 2026 from the CRC’s own meeting slides and resolutions plus Heady NJ’s reporting on both meetings, all linked at the bottom. License counts and patient numbers are as the CRC reported them.