states are looking at different ways to ensure

those most affected by decades of racially biased

anti drug policies have a leg up under a special

program New Jersey prioritizes granting

licenses to dispensaries run by people with marijuana

convictions on their records. Now, lawmakers hope

that by making equity a cornerstone of their newly

legalized markets, those who don't marijuana in the

illegal or legacy market will be persuaded to go

legit.

I'm here in Trenton, which is at the forefront of New

Jersey's legalization efforts. And I'm talking to

people who are some of the first in the state to get

dispensary licenses based on past marijuana related

offenses. And there's won't be a door right?

entrance here people walking through here. It's a waiting

room. Yep.

So the eggs the door where people come in is actually

going to be right over here. Yep. So the door where

people come in is going to be over here. So imagine

people are going to so when you come in the door like

you see the receptionist you check in, check your ID. And

then inside the actual retail sales floor, we're

gonna have a number of different accessories. Like

I said, bombs, papers merchandise.

This is to hear Johnson he's a 39 year old native of

union New Jersey, who's one of the first people with a

marijuana related criminal conviction to own and

operate a Legal dispensary in New Jersey. He's in the

process of renovating an old electrical warehouse into a

dispensary called simply pure Trenton.

You know, actually thinking about every time I even

think about the reality of what I'm actually doing, it

gets kind of overwhelming. It's like I put in a lot of

work, quit my job, I did all this stuff to try to do it.

But it's like the whole time. It's like you're just

going through the motions. And you don't know where

you're actually going to end up. And I've been on this

journey for like five years now. So it's crazy man.

What is going to be here? What is this going to look

like? What's its purpose?

This part right here was always traditionally a

retail store. There was the Metro PCS before and my

grandmother's nail shop, this wall is actually coming

down. So this is going to be one big wide open floor

space.

Getting licensed is a high stakes affair. In the third

quarter of 2022. Alone, legal marijuana sales

brought in $177 million across New Jersey, the vast

majority of it coming from recreational marijuana.

Half of our city is below the poverty line have a high

unemployment rate. And we have a lot of like urban

America across the United States have problems with

gangs and in crime. This is a great way that we could

turn a lot of young entrepreneurs into a

positive economic advantage and utilizing their

experience in in in being defeated the drug war to be

Victors and being able to get real economic advantage.

Johnson is one of many applicants who are

prioritized because of his past criminal marijuana

related offenses. He said he's been pulled over and

arrested several times for small amounts of cannabis.

Now cannabis is becoming his career has always

been that response and if you really want to give back

and try to help lift people that came from similar

situations and make a difference and that's really

what I've been working at doing for years but to nail

actually be the example of what I've been preaching

about to try to tell people like you know, always

talking about, we need to have more ownership in his

business more opportunities, but unable to actually be

able to get one myself and be able to show what that

achievement looks like. You know, it's amazing.

The black market for marijuana in New Jersey

remains alive and well. Despite statewide, the

criminalization and the legalization of recreational

cannabis. This is at Fortune, a local celebrity

who goes by the nickname NJ weed man, his dispensary in

downtown Trenton does not currently have a license and

operates in a legal gray zone. Thanks to years of

court battles, both criminal and civil. It also sits

right across from Trenton City Hall. Yeah, so tell me

about your story. What has led you here?

I've been selling weed pretty much my whole adult

life. But as this whole legalization movement spread

across the country, right, I felt like the black market

is a real legitimate market the marijuana market.

So where are you in the process of becoming illegal?

I got the conditional license we've applied for

the annual license no word yet. And it might because

the obviously no I'm not complying with the

conditions. I'm not totally matched to the state. The

way it's doing the CRC board itself is trying I like what

they're trying to do. I think we're going in the

right direction. Yes, I do. I think there's more public

opinion and guys like me, forcing these issues out

there. You know, like, what are you gonna do with the

black market? We're gonna do with the legacy market. What

are you gonna do with these guys? Throw race Don't wait

like they have to deal with us now like they could come

around bust us off to that would be a political

nightmare for that. So that's

Trenton used to be home of Roebling factories that made

the steel cables for the Brooklyn Bridge. We made

Lenox China here, White House, China, we make

toilets, car parts, and all of that industry has dried

up and this is the emerging new market that will will be

here for years to come.