It’s been almost a year since lawmakers legalized adult use marijuana in New Jersey.

Since the legalization of adult use recreational marijuana, it seems like it’s been one deadline after the next. There’s another one coming up next month, one the cannabis industry in New Jersey has long waited for.

Feb. 22 is the day New Jersey is set to open adult use recreational weed sales or make a decision on a date. Cannabis industry insiders say they don’t see that happening.

Patrik Jonsson, Curaleaf NE regional president says, “It seems like that deadline is probably going to be hard to meet. We still haven’t seen finalized regulations which is going to be key for us to know what we need to be doing.”

Curaleaf says in preparation for adult use sales, it ramped up its operations, including hiring more staff and expanding cultivation. And now it has excess product with no market to sell to and has to continually having to expand storage.

“We’ve gone from one vault to now having five, I think maybe we’re at six vaults right now we’re soon going to go towards potentially limiting some of this product because we can’t fit it all,” says Jonsson.

It’s been almost a year now since adult use was legalized in our state, however cannabis industry insiders say New Jersey has missed out on millions.

Arizona legalized adult use around the same time New Jersey did and it has already made about $175 million in taxes. In Illinois, taxes from cannabis sales recently surpassed taxes from alcohol sales. It is estimated that New Jersey has missed out on $126 million in possible tax dollars.

Alternative Treatment Centers or ATC’s say it has already created jobs but those jobs are now at risk because of lack of work from delaying the start of adult use sales.

Industry insiders say holding off on the opening of recreational sales is pushing people to underground markets, where the products are not vetted or regulated and can be potentially dangerous.