Cannabis Retailer Appeals After Morristown Council Denies License

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Uma Flowers, the cannabis company building a storefront in Morristown, has appealed Town Council's decision to reject renewal of their retail license.

The company says they were "shut out and sandbagged" during the renewal process, and had no time to review a report from the Morristown Cannabis Advisory Board that influenced council members' decisions.

A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers.

At the last council meeting, the town and CAB cited "sufficient evidence that they can no longer continue to support UMA Flowers NJ, LLC and their application" in a resolution denying the company's renewal, thus invalidating the local cannabis business retail license — effective immediately.

This evidence came from a June 11 report by the CAB, which was released the same day of the council meeting, and reportedly indicated that the company lacked specifics and transparency in their planning.

The report "is a work of fiction that is filled with statements that are false and/or misleading," said representatives from Uma Flowers in a response.

During the public comment period of the June 11 meeting, representatives from Uma Flowers had urged council members not to deny the one-year cannabis retail license renewal.

This included Priyanka Patel, who is the founder, operator, and owner of UMA Flowers NJ, LLC. Patel said she and her family have invested $2 million to build the property at 102 Ridgedale Avenue, and have worked to secure the proper contracts.

"Just in the last two weeks, we have poured our foundation and by the end of the month steel will be installed and a building profile will come into shape," she said. "After working with us for two years and issuing building permits only a few weeks ago, why did you issue building permits if you knew you were going to revoke our license?"

Council first approved the resolution allowing the Massachusetts-based vendor to open Morristown's first cannabis dispensary in 2022, and awarded the first retail license on May 24 of that year. The process of finalizing the approvals took longer than expected, and last October officials approved a one-year extension for Uma Flowers to open up shop.

Patch has requested a copy of the report from town officials.