“We don’t allow alcohol sales, we shouldn’t allow this,” Councilwoman Karen Bergman said after voting to ban recreational marijuana in the city.
In practice, cannabis enforcement for adults in the resort will be similar — anyone over the age of 21 coming to town with a six-pack of beer or a bag of weed for consumption at home is perfectly legal.
Unlike Ocean City, Atlantic City has embraced recreational pot and its financial benefits. The city, which has a medical dispensary on the Boardwalk and a planned second location, also expects to take advantage of a 2% tax the city can collect on sales of cannabis products.
“The state should consider the opportunities that may be created by new initiatives, including the legalization of recreational use marijuana, as potential sources of political and financial support for the efforts to restart and recover Atlantic City,” according to a state-issued report outlining the resort’s path to post COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
Municipalities’ quick opposition to recreational marijuana could be rooted in some considering it a “gateway drug” and the stigma attached to it, political analysts said.
“It’s kind of unique. You don’t see too many illegal products that become legal,” said John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. “I guess it’s the association with drug abuse and the decades-long war on drugs, going back all the way to the movie ‘Reefer Madness’ in the 1930s.”
