N.j.’s Cannabis Industry is Booming With Opening More Than 50 New Dispensaries

Jesse Marie Villars' cannabis store in Lambertville finally opened after a long time of waiting. This was a long-held goal for the previously unknown business owner and shows that the cannabis market is doing well in some parts of New Jersey.

Baked by the River opened on December 16 and is one of 57 dispensaries that opened in the Garden State this year. This is the first full year that cannabis has been allowed for recreational use in New Jersey.

We're glad we're at this point, even though the process has been long. We were an old, illegal business. The man said, "Both my partner and I have been arrested for cannabis in the past." It's really like a dream come true to have reached this point.

Cannabis DispensaryPhoto bynj

When the state's recreational cannabis market opened a year ago, in April 2022, there were only 22 dispensaries. Most of them were multi-state operators, which are big cannabis companies.

At least 79 shops in 18 counties now serve people who want to use marijuana for fun. Forty of them let both medical marijuana patients and people who just want to use weed for fun. There are nine shops that are only for people who use medical marijuana.

The boom is just getting started. Since the summer, 25 new shops have opened across the state. The conditional licenses of four manufacturers and sixteen dispensaries have been changed to yearly licenses, which are needed to start selling and making cannabis. Another 14 shops have conditional licenses, which means they are one step closer to opening.

The head of the cannabis agency, Jeff Brown, said in a statement, "It was a successful year for New Jersey's growing cannabis market, confirming the effectiveness of our approach to building a market on a framework of social equity and public safety."

In the first three quarters of the year, cannabis sales added up to $578 million (information on the last quarter will be released in January). Brown said that next year's sales will hit $1 billion.

Weed in New Jersey is still some of the most expensive in the country, and the prices don't change much all year. Part of the reason for this is that most of the weed in the state comes from the same growers. It costs about $150 to $250 for an ounce of marijuana on the black market, but up to $400 for the same amount at a facility.

Brown has said that those prices will finally go down as there is more competition. He talked a lot about the opening of "consumption lounges," which will let shops have places where people can smoke or eat cannabis products on the property.

"Next year, we should also see rules put in place for places where people can consume cannabis, which could give cannabis businesses another chance to grow," he said.

A lot of applicants and business owners say they are still running into problems, even though more shops are opening. Some of the problems are close to home: two-thirds of cities and towns across the state have banned cannabis shops from operating in their areas.

Villars said that she was able to open, but she got into a lot of debt while she was waiting for different licenses. She had planned to open in the spring, but the Cannabis Regulatory Commission lost her application for three months, which pushed back the date.

People who work for the cannabis office often tell similar stories at their meetings. As for Villars, she said she couldn't get her problem fixed until she went to talk to the panel directly.

"I run a small business. "We got here on our own, and we're in a lot of debt because of it," she said. "So what happens when bigger businesses open before small ones? They can't protect themselves as well, which is a problem that I know other small businesses have had to deal with too."

The Source:

newjerseymonitor