Six months ago, Dan Kessel of Berkeley Township talked openly about Bud Hub, the cannabis gifting and delivery business he ran with his sister, almost daring law enforcement authorities to investigate and musing about "my goal to be legal."

Today, Kessel sits in the Ocean County Correctional Facility where he's been held without bail since Oct. 20. Berkeley Township Police arrested him on money laundering and marijuana distribution charges. They confiscated his jeep, with its Bud Hub signage, $400,000 in cash and an unknown quantity of marijuana from his Berkeley home and a property in Toms River.

Kessel, 36, is the latest person to be caught operating in the "gray" cannabis market — the sale of goods and services that are technically legal, but are not authorized to be sold.

Marijuana possession up to six ounces is legal, but until state regulators sign off, there are no licensed retail stores permitted to sell it in the Garden State.
In June, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs sent cease and desist letters to four such operators: Sky High Munchies; Slumped Kitchen LLC; NJGreenDirect.com LLC; and West Winds Wellness. [Read more at NJ.com]