We Need Your Help

Hi friend—
I’m asking for your help today. Governor Murphy signed NJ Hemp Bill S3235 this week. The bill has some controversial and draconian rules and regulations. Read more about it here. One of these regulations makes it illegal for a small business like The Botanica Boutique, which is aimed at adult wellness, to sell any THC product that is above 2.5mg THC per package. Which means that products like Mr. Moxey’s mints (2.5mg THC each or less + beneficial cannabinoids) or High Confectionery Sour Flower gummies (1mg THC + 1mg CBD each), would be illegal for us to sell. 
The bill seems to focus on liquor stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. All of which, you all know, The Botanica Boutique is not. The bill claims that the state is trying to regulate and control the sale of hemp-derived THC to minors. As you probably are aware, we never sell any THC product to minors in the shop. This bill may also mean a hefty license fee to sell these products that are available to adults nationwide and, under the 2018 Farm Bill, all legal. This means that adults in NJ will not be able to even purchase these from any online retailers.
The kicker is the draconian rule that all of these, now “illegal” products must be sold in the next 30 days (now less) by retailers like us. As you are aware, The Botanica Boutique is a very small, woman-owned, community-focused business. Not being able to sell products that we have already paid for will have a huge negative impact on this business and many others.
Now, here's how you can help. Below I have drafted an email that you can copy and paste to email our state officials and let them know that NJ Hemp Bill S3235 needs to be amended. As it stands, this would mean that adults in NJ would not have access to low-dose THC and cannabinoid-rich products that aid so many of us with managing our anxiety, insomnia, perimenopause, pain, depression, focus, etc. 
One thing I highlight in the letter below is that there is a BIG difference between hemp-derived, low-dose THC products and the cannabis products available at NJ dispensaries. As many of you know already, dispensary products are great, but they aren’t for everyone. They are much stronger. This is not an apples-to-apples comparison and we have to let our state officials know that. The fact that this is completely overlooked tells us that the people writing the bills don’t know that there are distinct differences like this in these essential products.
I have linked the email pages for several state officials and the NJCRC (Cannabis Regulatory Commission) below. If you can, please email all of them or choose the ones you feel to be the most important to reach out to for this cause. You can always add your own touch to the letter! 
This means so much to us. The Botanica Boutique wants to continue to serve your every wellness need and we feel very strongly that this bill will impair our ability to do that.
Thank you so much! We love this community!
With much gratitude, 
Kris Haas
 
Email Governor Murphy (on the contact page, choose “Business” as the topic)
 
 
 
 
O
 
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Letter to copy/paste:

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to you today regarding the NJ Hemp Bill S3235. Written as is, this bill does not protect small businesses like The Botanica Boutique, which is a wellness boutique in South Orange, NJ. All products sold by this business are focused on health and wellness. Kris Haas, the owner, works hard to work with other small businesses and curates a selection of high-quality, low-dose hemp-derived products, along with a host of other natural and herbal products for wellness.

This business never sells to minors. By and large, the clientele are adults in the local community, seeking to feel better and help what ails them. Many people take the low-dose THC products to help their anxiety, insomnia, pain, depression, etc. These are not recreationally-used, high-dose products like the NJ dispensaries carry. 

It’s important to note and consider the following:

  • Small businesses need more than 30 days to sell the products they have already purchased. The 30-day limit (now less) to sell all THC products that don’t meet the bill’s standards is not a fair amount of time for small businesses like The Botanica Boutique. If the NJCRC needs 180 days to “amend” and “write” this bill into a law, small businesses should be given at least this long to sell their products. For small business owners and solopreneurs, the current timeline could mean losing a significant amount of money on inventory they have already purchased.
  • Hemp-derived, low-dose THC products ARE NOT the same or even comparable to NJ dispensary cannabis products. Hemp-derived products containing low-dose THC that are rich in beneficial cannabinoids are NOT the same thing as cannabis products containing THC sold in NJ dispensaries. As much as we lump NJ dispensary cannabis into the “wellness” category, a lot of adults are searching for products that won’t make them high or feel “hungover” like NJ dispensary cannabis often does. This is NOT an apples-to-apples comparison. As written, the bill claims that 2.5mg for a whole package is a “non-intoxicating” amount of THC. This simply is not accurate. Hemp-derived THC products are much less strong and “intoxicating” than NJ dispensary cannabis. A 5mg gummy from a dispensary is significantly less gentle than a hemp-derived gummy containing 5mg of THC along with other cannabinoids (like those sold at wellness shops like The Botanica Boutique). This bill needs to be rewritten to include products that are up to 5mg of hemp-derived THC per piece. These are considered microdose products and are used for wellness and not to just “get high.” 
  • Consider the adults who purchase hemp-derived, low-dose THC products for their everyday wellness. Hemp-derived products containing THC in amounts 5mg and under are used by adults to help with anxiety, depression, addiction, pain, mental health, perimenopause, etc. These adults choose hemp-derived products because they are less potent than NJ dispensary cannabis products and they can be used daily to microdose. Adults use these “lighter,” hemp-derived THC products so that they can function during the day and not be “intoxicated” or “impaired” by the high levels of THC found in NJ dispensary cannabis products. It is so important to realize the difference in these people’s lives that this makes. For instance, only having low-dose THC seltzers available in liquor stores does not support the adults in this state that are recovering from alcohol addiction and do not want to go into liquor stores to purchase these products. A small business such as The Botanica Boutique, offers these adults a safe alternative to being around alcoholic beverages to purchase these low-dose, hemp-derived THC beverages.
  • Small businesses that offer wellness products, like The Botanica Boutique should NOT be lumped in with “gas stations, convenience stores, or liquor stores.” It is important to note the difference between “gas stations, liquor stores, and convenience stores” that sell THC products and small boutique wellness businesses like The Botanica Boutique. The products that are offered in small businesses like this are aimed at wellness and microdosing, they are not typically over 5mg per piece (gummy, mint, etc.). Plus, businesses like The Botanica Boutique work hard to curate high-quality products to bring to their clientele that are aimed at wellness, and they do not sell to minors. This type of business should not be included in a bill like this that is clearly aimed at liquor stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. It’s also important to realize that people who come to a wellness boutique, may use these products in lieu of drinking and do not want to go into a liquor store to purchase their low-dose THC seltzers.

In closing, please consider exemptions made for small wellness businesses like The Botanica Boutique in South Orange, NJ that aim to help adults manage their wellness. These types of businesses do not want to be dispensaries, as those products in NJ are too strong for their clientele and the opposite of what people go to these businesses to look for. Please consider the clear difference between hemp-derived products that are low in THC and high in cannabinoids (as the 2018 Farm Bill states) and the higher dosed THC products sold in NJ dispensaries. 

Please help to keep small businesses like The Botanica Boutique, whose mission is to help people feel well (which we need in the world we live in, now more than ever), alive and thriving in our communities. Hefty license fees and making the products they sell illegal for them to carry, is not the way toward repairing our collective issues in wellness. Nor is it the way to support our local small businesses, part of what makes our communities so vibrant and special. Let these businesses continue to serve the communities in NJ as they have been. We are asking this as NJ citizens and voters.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Signed,

[put your name and address here]