As of July 1, 2022, participants in New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program are no longer required to pay state sales taxes on any cannabis and related products at state-licensed medical dispensaries.
This tax cut was the final step of a three-phase plan as part of The Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act, which was signed into law by NJ Governor Phil Murphy in 2019. The legalization, named after seven-year-old Jake Honig, who passed away from brain cancer in 2018, aims to improve and expand access to New Jersey’s medical cannabis program.
“Removing state sales tax on medicinal cannabis is consistent with Governor Murphy and the legislature’s intent to prioritize patients and improve affordability,” said Executive Director of the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission Jeff Brown in a recent press release.
Currently, there are about 130,000 medical cannabis patients in New Jersey. By reducing the sales tax from 6.625% to 4% in 2020, then later from 4% to 2% in 2021, and now removing it entirely—the state aims to offer patients access to care at a lower cost. Prior to these changes, medical cannabis was the only medicine in the state that included a sales tax.
The new rule does not apply to adult-use recreational cannabis, which the state legalized for sale in April of 2022.
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