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Gianna Nitti, the general manager, is a Toms River East graduate. She said the wait for the final licensing is common, because the state commission is dealing with dozens of applications for retail, manufacturing and cultivator licenses.

As of April, the regulatory commission had approved 98 annual awards, including 51 for retailers — the category that The Social Leaf is in — as adult recreational cannabis dispensaries, according to the state commission’s website.

There are just two recreational-only dispensaries that have been licensed so far; one is in New Brunswick and the other is in Woodbury, in Gloucester County. There are 38 dispensaries that started as medical-only that have been approved to sell recreational cannabis, according to the state.

The Social Leaf received its initial state approval on March 2, just shy of a year after its application was submitted. There was a hiccup when it was discovered South Toms River was incorrectly listed by the state as an impact zone — a designation for low-income areas, primarily in the cities — but that was quickly corrected, Earp said.

Since the state approval in March, however, they have been in full gear preparing the store at 334/336 Atlantic City Blvd. (also known as Route 166), next to Dicky’s Dogs and near Sundae’s ice cream shop. They renovated the former Capt’n Hippo Bait & Tackle shop and a junk dealer next door into a sleek, modern space, with TV monitors that will display information on the array of cannabis offerings and 11 point-of-sale terminals to serve customers.

“We also plan to offer curbside service and a takeout window,” Marino said, “so we can avoid long lines,” with orders placed online on their website.

Because South Toms River is one of just three towns in Ocean County that have not banned any adult-use recreational businesses, and because the nearest dispensaries are a 45-minute drive, the eagerness for the dispensary to open goes beyond the owners. During an hourlong interview, there were at least a dozen knocks on the door from people asking if they were open yet. An open house for information on June 15

“We just hope people don’t end up staying away,” Marino said.

The wait has allowed them to add elements inside the store that they had not anticipated being able to do before opening, Earp said.

It’s also allowed Nitti and Jourdain X. Griffieth, the assistant general manager, to continue to train the dispensary’s employees — Earp and Marino said they have 50 people on staff from a range of backgrounds — so they are deeply immersed in the array of cannabis products that will be for sale.

That will allow them to address each customer’s interests in cannabis effectively.

“If someone comes in and they have never used it before, we can ask them what is your desired effect? What are you comfortable with? Do you want the psychoactivity or prefer to not feel high?” Nitti said.

There are fewer than 30 brands of cannabis approved for sale through the dispensaries in New Jersey, and they are regulated and tracked “from seed to store,” Marino said. For each product sold, the consumer can learn how it was grown, what level of THC is found in every product — tetrahydrocannabinol, the naturally occurring part of cannabis that causes people to feel high — what fertilizers were used and how it was harvested and, if in edible form, how it was processed, Nitti said.

That seed-to-store tracking is what the group says will draw customers in despite the higher price associated with legal cannabis: people will know what they are getting.

“People who buy it on the street have no idea what they are buying,” Marino said. “They don’t know how clean it is, or whether it’s been laced with something,” such as fentanyl, which has led to fatal overdoses among people who had no idea they were smoking it.

Nitti said the dispensary has smokeable cannabis, but also will offer consumables in the form of what New Jersey labels medicated lozenges, both hard and soft forms; in capsules and tablets formulated for a range of uses from relaxation to energy and libido boosters, and as additives for beverages. There also are tinctures people can drop right under their tongue for faster absorption.

No candies, no chocolates, no baked goods infused with cannabis will be sold, as they strictly adhere to the state regulations, she said.

For people who want the pain relief that cannabis can provide without the psychoactive effects, there are topical cannabis balms and lotions that do not make someone high, Nitti said. The topicals also do not show up in drug screenings, the dispensary brochure says.

All of the offerings are managed by Kevin Gorsegner, the inventory manager.

They have a state investigator assigned to their case, and Nitti said they confer with him regularly for guidance on what is permitted and what they need to do to make sure they have crossed every “t” and dotted every “i” for compliance.

Earp said the group, which got together in early 2022 and agreed to go into the business together, has invested more than $100,000 in the venture, including in attorneys’ fees and consultants’ fees, to make sure they submitted “a perfect application,” he said. Their application spelled out their business plan, security measures — including hiring police officers from the neighboring towns — and other specifics about the business, “more than what the application asked for,” Earp said.

Earp, who also owned a landscape construction business for more than 20 years, and Marino first met during a private event in 2019 in downtown Toms River called Burnin’ in the ‘Burbs. The event, which featured graffiti artists painting on plywood walls put up for the event, drew about 1,500 people.

They crossed paths again later and discussed the possibility of another Burnin’ in the ‘Burbs event, and that led to a discussion about going into business selling recreational cannabis. Marino knew Hall, and Hall reached out to Guzzi, who is his brother-in-law, to gauge Guzzi’s interest.

“We sat down over dinner and made a deal that night,” Earp said.

Marino want and Hall said part of the reason they got involved was because of concerns about how mental health is treated and how pain is medicated, which has fueled the addiction crisis in the United States. Marino said he would like to use his share of the profits to get a nonprofit he created to address mental illness off the ground.

For Hall, it’s even more personal: He is a disabled veteran, who served in the Marine Corps in Iraq, Okinawa and was among those who assisted with recovery efforts in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. The experiences left him with significant PTSD, he said.

“I was loaded up on pills,” Hall said, adding they left him feeling unable to function coherently. Though his therapist initially opposed it, Hall began using cannabis to relieve the pain, and it turned his life around, he said.

“I’ve seen family members helped immensely,” Guzzi said. “With cannabis they have straightened themselves out.”

That’s one of the goals: To meet the needs of people who are looking for relief or simply relaxation through cannabis.

Earp, whose wife, Jennifer Forsdahl, is the dispensary’s CFO, said they passed their final state inspection and were told the license would be issued “in one to two weeks.” They’ve also since received their certificate of occupancy from South Toms River.

“South Toms River has been very supportive,” Earp said.

So now they wait.

“It’s going to be a relief when we do open, after all the hard work we’ve put in,” he said.

They have been posting updates on the dispensary’s Facebook page and website.

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