WEST MILFORD – The Township Council will wait until state legislation legalizing marijuana is passed before setting up local regulations.
Township Attorney Fred Semrau told the council that it would do better to wait and see what the state passes before creating its own ordinance.
Semrau said that anything the town passed would likely need to be repealed and then a new ordinance created to fall in line with new state laws regarding the use and sale of marijuana.
The state failed to pass legislation that would make the recreational use of pot legal, but the issue is likely to come up again as it has the support of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
West Milford is considering how it should react as far as regulating legal sales under new state laws, or banning it locally as some other municipalities have.
Semrau pointed to an Ocean County town that preemptively banned marijuana, but would then have to repeal that ordinance and revisit the issue if the state passes legislation making it legal.
State law supersedes local ordinances.
The only action the town has taken to this point, Semrau said, was to allow a specific township business to apply for a handful of medical marijuana licenses distributed by the state during the last couple of years.
That business did not get one of the few licenses, he said.