well there's tax relief on the way for the state's expanding legal cannabis industry Governor Murphy on Tuesday signed a law giving licensed marijuana businesses the ability to deduct certain expenses on their state tax returns just by decoupling them from federal rules it's a workaround on an IRS code that blocks those in the market from making Federal deductions since marijuana is still classified as a schedule one narcotic at the federal level the bill sponsors say the new law is one way to level the playing field within the market by taking into account the normal operating costs to do business here the signing comes as the state marks two other big firsts this week the opening of two more recreational Cannabis shops both owned by women serving a growing field of customers at a time when the number of New Jersey's medical patients is dropping Melissa Rose Cooper reports I finally have this moment is really the culmination of years and years of hard work and patience it's a process Sarah Tran says she started back in 2018. now her business Valley Wellness and Raritan is the first woman-owned dispensary in New Jersey we only operate in New Jersey and we were the first stand-alone dispensary to open in the state for medical sales that was early or I'm sorry late uh 2022 and then just last week we finally opened for a recreational sales Suzanne Nicholson also celebrating a big win her business Holistic Solutions dispensary is the state's first black woman-owned recreational shop I feel is amazing we are so honored to be one of the first minority operators in the state we are five days in so it is um a fluid opportunity of really learning um it has been a great welcoming reception in our hometown of Waterford but as more dispensaries move into the recreational markets the state is seeing a drop of medical marijuana patients High product prices are one main issue Advocates say costs could be lower if new jerseyans are allowed to grow their own marijuana certainly I wouldn't be complaining about right is this if I could grow a little bit my own every summer in my garden outside but with that prohibited and expensive prices consumers in New Jersey are in a real bind and that's why honestly the tradition Al Market still thrives in New Jersey because in the dispensary it's four or five hundred dollars an ounce plus tax but at our traditional supplier we're talking about about two hundred dollars an ounce and no tax and cannabis Advocates say another major issue for medical patients is the required doctor's visit which isn't covered by insurance it's at least a hundred dollars a visit I don't know I haven't known any doctors who charge less than that per visit and some charge more but the problem is of course that the card has to be renewed um every couple of years and and you have to be recertified by these doctors uh uh and depending on the doctor what he says it could be uh every couple of months or it could be once a year but cannabis Regulatory Commission Executive Director Jeff Brown says the state still has a strong medical marijuana program I think it's you know being slightly overstated we're still at 110 000 patients being served and that's down from a high point of 128 000. so we've seen roughly a 20 000 patient decline over the course of the last year um but we still see strong sales Brown says medicinal sales brought in just under 50 million dollars as of the last quarter of 2022. while Brown agrees the recreational Market is having some impact he says there is still significant benefits of being in the medical program the sales tax has been eliminated on medicinal cannabis so whereas there's a sales tax on recreational Cannabis patients pay uh no tax uh on their uh on their cannabis secondly we've reduced patient registration fees so now at Max a patient will pay 50 every two years to uh to sign up and most patients are actually paying twenty dollars every two years and all caregivers are only twenty dollars uh for a registration fee the CRC says it's continually working to make sure medical cannabis patients are prioritized as recreate national sales expands Advocates are hoping the state will do more to make sure the market is Affordable for everyone for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper support for the business report provided by Junior Achievement of New Jersey providing students with skills and knowledge to explore choose and Advance their career paths for a brighter future online at janj.org [Music]