In our spotlight on Business Report.

Ten months after the state approved rules for cannabis consumption areas in New Jersey, business owners say they're still waiting for the regulatory board to give them details on the process or even how to apply.

Retailers who want to open a lounge, which are private places where you can pay to light up legally, say they've been left in limbo, waiting and hoping they'll be able to open up and start recouping the costs they've sunk in into their businesses.

Raven Santana reports.

I have my house for sale.

Like it's that bad?

It is that.

Bad.

Alyza Brevard Rodriguez revealing the uncomfortable reality and challenge of trying to open up a cannabis consumption lounge above her dispensary called the Other Side Dispensary in Jersey City.

Bravado Rodriguez, who is also the first black, Latin, LGBTQ and disabled veteran to open up a cannabis operator in Jersey, is now waiting to move forward.

Her frustrations come after the cannabis Regulatory Commission approved rules for consumption lounges in January, but still no applications are available to entrepreneurs who want to open them.

I mean, they're processes the application process, right?

So they have to open the portal.

They have to tell us what the fees are going to be.

They have to tell us what the rules are going to be.

You know, they are now reintroducing or they have introduced drinks.

What is that going to mean for consumption lounges?

It's drinks here in the dispensary.

We're going to sell them.

But can people drink water?

Can they drink coffee?

What does that look like?

She says the reality is without a timeline or direction from the state as to how she can build out her consumption lounge, she is now stuck in limbo.

We have built this business organically through community, and this dispensary is actually performing very, very well.

But the reality is that we take on so much debt.

There's so much red tape in the waiting game, month over month, paying for rent.

You know, upstairs is unfinished because I cannot confidently spend the money.

First off, I don't even have the money, but I cannot spend the money to do that buildout and not have a timeframe of when I would be able to open and get that money back.

So for me, it's space that I'm paying for at this time, and it's part of my dispensary.

It's the upstairs.

But it's still coming out of my rent.

There has been no delay.

Christopher Riggs, chief counsel of New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, admits the process and rules that are in place could take time.

But insurers, business owners, it's all in an effort to complete a safe and efficient vetting process.

There is no legislative mandate to accept consumption area endorsements, but let's be mindful of the fact that the rules and regulations have been on the books for about ten months, which give operators the ability to look at the rules and regulations and understand what a consumption area has to look like to comply with the law.

There are safety measures, there are ventilation requirements.

All of those things are on the books and contained in 17 column 30 in our rules and regulations.

Riggs says the methodical process is all about getting things right the first time.

I don't think there are any obstacles.

I think we have the rules in place.

I think that we were concerned about the market and making sure that this industry gets established.

Before diving into a new space with consumption areas, there's only a limited number of states that actually offer consumption areas with Colorado and California being the other two states.

So being a new market, being a new cannabis market, we wanted to make sure that we established a vibrant market prior to opening up a new path for revenue for these operators.

I don't believe.

There's anything stopping the CRC from coming out right now and saying, here are our here's our licensing process.

They can add it to the existing notice of applications as they've done before.

Molly Hartmann Lustig, chair of Mclauchlan and Sterns Cannabis Practice Group, says there's a lot at stake for business owners during that waiting process.

Reiterating that time means money and.

I mean, we're not talking just shuffling papers.

We're talking getting not only the municipal approval, which, you know, you're not there's not any set cost involved in that, but there may be licensing fees and they are not insignificant.

As far as the commission, we are hopeful to get this done in the next several weeks, hopefully to see it on a December agenda.

And if not, it'll be on an agenda in the next few months with with the caveat that the Chair and the Board of Commissioners are responsible for setting the agenda.

In the meantime, Rodriguez continues to find creative ways to use space in her dispensary as she waits for the green light, like so many others, to begin construction here in what she hopes to be a consumption lounge.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.