On Thursday, April 21, hundreds of New Jersey citizens woke up early, some at three or four a.m., and stood in a line for hours on end, yawning and slowly inching closer and closer towards their destination. What could prompt so many people to wake up at such an early hour? As it turns out, they were waiting for the opening of New Jersey’s first marijuana dispensaries.

Under the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Act, weed can now be sold to anyone over the age of 21 from dozens of authorized dispensaries scattered across the state. Many New Jersey residents are excited about the change, including Governor Phil Murphy, who called the law a “historic step in our work to create a new cannabis industry.” In many towns and precincts though, there has been significant pushback. Princeton is one of those towns.

In November of 2021, an astounding 75 percent of Princeton voters cast their ballots in favor of legalizing marijuana. Statewide, only 67 percent of New Jersey residents voted the same way. Now that marijuana establishments actually seem to be making their way to Princeton, though, a new wave of anti-weed sentiment has spread through the town. In response to a Town Council proposal to open dispensaries in Princeton, an army of residents voiced their disapproval at a council meeting that ran for several hours. However, these opponents are mistaken. We know a lot about what setting up weed dispensaries would do to Princeton, because we’ve seen what setting up weed dispensaries did in other towns, and practically every result was positive.

Let’s talk about the health risks of smoking marijuana. Many people who are against weed dispensaries defend their stance by citing the adverse and understudied effects of recreational marijuana. At first glance, that argument makes sense — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that weed can be addictive, and over time, users start to have problems with memory loss and critical thinking. Many Princetonians have taken this to heart: it’s not uncommon to see bright yellow signs adorning lawns, featuring red blocky letters spelling out the slogan of the campaign: “too many unknowns.”

What this argument fails to take into account, though, is that marijuana that comes from federally approved dispensaries is less harmful than marijuana from the black market. The Trulieve Institute writes in a 2020 article that much of the marijuana bought off the street isn’t pure, and doesn’t follow the regulations and safety checks that dispensaries must. That’s why the National Institute on Drug Abuse writes that street marijuana has volatile, unpredictable effects that can be deadly. Jean-Gabriel Fernandez writes in 2019 that “teenagers and young adults – are disproportionately at risk of being harmed by predatory dealers and low-quality products.” For all Americans, weed coming from a dispensary is safer than the alternative, and leads to less of the harmful side effects of smoking pot that critics are worried about.

Of course, an easy retort to this is that creating dispensaries makes the drug more accessible, which entices more high schoolers to do weed and overshadows the benefits of safer marijuana. However, Amy Morin writes for the mental health organization Verywell Mind in 2022 that practically every single high schooler that wants weed can already get it, which is why a third of high schoolers have tried the drug, and 75 percent of seniors are confident that they could get their hands on it if they wanted to. Establishing dispensaries in Princeton wouldn’t normalize weed – it is already normalized. It would still be illegal for teens to use the drug when dispensaries are established in Princeton, so students would still have to use the black market to make purchases. In fact, a study conducted by the CDC just last year found that among high schoolers, legalizing marijuana actually led to a small decrease in the number of adolescents who smoke weed. That’s because by shrinking the black market, dispensaries decrease teens’ access to the substance.

Moreover, weed dispensaries will help our town achieve social justice. Udi Ofer writes just last month in Planet Princeton that our town suffers from the over-policing of marijuana among adults, which systematically discriminates against Black residents. From 2000-2013, 50 percent of Princeton marijuana arrests locked up or fined Black people, even though Princeton is only six percent Black. Anyone arrested on a cannabis charge can be fired from their job, face up to half a year in jail, and even lose their public housing or immigration status. By putting legal dispensaries in our town, we can reaffirm the statewide decision legalizing marijuana, and make sure nobody in Princeton gets unjustly locked up for purchasing or selling weed illegally.

Considering all of this, the anti-dispensary hysteria in Princeton is unfounded. Dispensaries will ensure safer marijuana for Princeton residents, help to end the racialized policing that’s plagued Princeton for decades, and may even decrease weed usage within our school. Although us students won’t be the ones lining up at three in the morning, waiting for our Princeton weed outlet to open, we’re excited for the day when other residents will have that opportunity.