$250k Thrown Into Garbage: Disabled Combat Veteran Slams NJ Cannabis Commission For Ignoring Her For 2 Painful Years

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC) approved 64 cannabis licenses at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. The commission's executive director Jeff Brown talked about license prioritization by category, assessment methodology and scoring, writes HeadyNj.

"New businesses continue to open. There are now more than 100 cannabis dispensaries open," Brown said. "We're starting to see new cultivators open up, new manufacturers open up."

As of March, 8 there were 219 operating licenses issued. Being Women's History Month, Brown wanted a count of women-owned cannabis businesses in the state. NJCRC director of Diversity and Inclusion Wesley McWhite III showed a slide with that info.

"New Jersey can stand tall with 36 percent of our licenses being awarded to women," McWhite said.

What A Shame, Says Disabled Veteran Waiting For A License

However, not everyone was pleased with the data. One annual license applicant, Aylyza Brevard-Rodriguez, Ph.D. of The Other Side Dispensary in Jersey City pleaded with the commission not to forget small minority business owners in its licensing process. Brevard-Rodriguez is the leader of multiple brands and host of a leading industry podcast, "Coffee and Cannabis."

“Good afternoon, my name is Dr. Brevard-Rodriguez and I am the founder of a future cannabis dispensary and consumption lounge called The Other Side," said Brevard-Rodriguez who holds a Ph.D. Leadership Management and Policy. 

“Yesterday, I received a personal courtesy call to be advised that I would not be awarded today, but that my comments were ‘welcomed,'” Brevard-Rodriguez continued. “I thought how ironic that the CRC had time to cross-reference their emails with the speaker list but didn’t have time to rush an already overdue application that was found to have zero discrepancies…from a 10-year military veteran." 

A decorated combat-disabled veteran, she pointed out the irony of regulators awarding out-of-state businesses with grants, "but we weren’t found good enough for that either. So I can be glorified as the most diverse applicant but apparently not good enough to be awarded a grant, a license, or receive any state assistance at this point. However, we are good enough to be a marker on your data set every month." 

$250k Thrown Into The Garbage

Though Brevard-Rodriguez called this a “painful two-year process," she’s been praised in the media for being a Black Latina LGBTQ, disabled vet operator. "Despite the fact that it’s the only variation yet to be awarded. I’m a Jersey resident, I have zero involvement with any MSOs, no FSA, no MSA, and I have tremendous business acumen so I’m pretty much the exact type of candidate the CRC has described they wanted as an operator YET here we are, still without a license." 

In two years, Brevard-Rodriguez and her team essentially threw the $250,000 raised from Black and Brown investors into “the garbage," having used it to cover real estate holding fees and professional services. 

 "Understand that this is not just data, these are real lives. I quit my full-time job as a policy expert to pursue this process after also being medically separated from the Navy again, after 10 years of service," she added. 

Brevard-Rodriguez, an adjunct professor at Hudson County Community College, had hoped this would be her opportunity for a life on the other side, but the licensing process rattled her anxiety so badly, "I may need to be my own best new customer." 

When she finally gets awarded next month, she’s bringing her investors with her so the commission can personally meet the people who took out home equity loans and borrowed against their 401Ks to invest in her project. "All so our kids don't experience another 400 years of strife and poverty." 

 "What a shame I had to come up here during Women's History Month and lead like this. What a shame," Brevard-Rodriguez concluded. 

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Courtesy photo