LAKEHURST – The borough’s first recreational cannabis dispensary, High Profile, located on the former site of a Burger King at 145 Route 70, will have a soft opening in January and a more extensive grand opening on Super Bowl weekend in February.
The operator of High Profile, Ankur Rungta and the firm’s attorney, Michael McQueeny spoke during the public comment period of a recent Borough Council meeting.
“We have gone through our final state inspection and now there is some paperwork we have to process,” Rungta said. He noted that invitations would be going out to the mayor and council for participation in the grand opening event.
Rungta added, “we are really excited and we appreciate all your support. It was a long process. I wish it could have been sooner but it is finally happening.”
He also addressed a concern he had. He heard that the business might be required to have an armed guard. “Currently the ordinance requires a guard but does not specify if that guard has to be armed or unarmed.”
“In our experience, we operate 24 stores throughout the state and many of those stores are actually in urban areas like the city of Boston, the city of Detroit. We don’t have an armed guard in any of our 24 stores,” Rungta said.
“It isn’t something that is typical of this industry and there is a couple of reasons for that – one being that we have tons of security equipment in these facilities. We have panic buttons everywhere, cameras. Typically, our staff would be trained and would push that panic button and wait for law enforcement to come to the site,” he added.
Rungta said an unarmed guard “would certainly keep the site orderly and would also be there to call for law enforcement if something serious happens. We wouldn’t look for an armed guard to do something different, so the idea of an armed guard doesn’t necessarily add a feature to anything.”
“For a lot of consumers, it is a little bit of a turnoff to go to a location that has an armed guard. It does make you feel uncomfortable at times and we just wouldn’t view it as necessary in an area like this that isn’t high risk,” Rungta said.
“We are more than happy to do it if that is what the Council ultimately decides is appropriate for the town as we do work with a local security firm that can provide that if we need that, but we already do have a lot of security infrastructure in place,” he added.
McQueeny, the firm’s attorney, noted there was no state regulation that required firms like High Profile to have a guard at all and that is left to the discretion of the community where the facility is based.
“I work with dozens of licensed operators here in New Jersey. A large portion of the marketplace does not require armed guards. If we look at the experience of New Jersey over the last decade with medical operators and adult use operators we typically don’t see those type of instances of there being a need for armed guards. One of the reasons why there isn’t a requirement is because of the security systems that we have,” the attorney added.
McQueeny said that during the hearings of the borough’s Planning Board the security protocols were outlined “at a very high level. There are limited access areas and you are buzzed into the next area. Once you are on the dispensary floor, the bulk of the product is in a secured area. This isn’t an urban area so anyone trying to (use force) would be captured on the camera.”
“The building looks amazing,” Council President Steven Oglesby said. “We are looking forward to having another successful business. We want you to succeed.”
