NJ has no Micro-business Dispensaries, It’s time for that to change
There are 21 Adult-Use Cannabis dispensaries in New Jersey. All 21 of them are owned by big corporations. It is time for New Jersey to stop allowing these national giant companies to further their stranglehold on the recreational marijuana use market. These big multi-state corporations either owned or acquired facilities already selling medical marijuana in New Jersey and were able to easily expand to selling adult weed at the same stores. It is not so easy for micro-businesses to do the same.
The Issue with Conditional Licenses
Less than 20% of the conditional license awardees in New Jersey are expected to meet the requirements needed to convert to an annual license. These requirements are extremely hard for micro-businesses to meet, yet these national giants had no trouble, allowing them to take advantage and get ahead of the competition. So far, the CRC has awarded 800 conditional licenses and only 18 annual licenses.
Struggling to Meet Demand
Industry experts warn if more smaller cannabis cultivators and manufacturers don’t get licensed, it will be very difficult for New Jersey’s budding industry to get to the next level and meet consumer demand. New Jersey has a low rate of converting smaller operators who have conditional licenses to the more permanent annual license status that allows them to begin operating.
The downside to the Big Corporations
Those New Jersey residents who have been disenfranchised by the war on cannabis for many years are at a severe disadvantage right now to make their mark in the Cannabis Industry. This is a direct result of these smaller operators being squeezed out.
CRC Executive Director Jeff Brown said the 18-month-old state agency charged with regulating the new industry is trying to give these smaller players a chance.
“The focus from day one has been to establish a competitive, consumer-driven market that is underpinned by opportunity and equity,”
He said while the state cannabis legalization law “made that process faster and easier” for companies already selling medical marijuana to expand into recreational weed sales, “our focus has always been on getting local, small business operators into the marketplace.”
Reaching Big Corporation Capacity
Five of the eight heavy hitter companies that set up shop in New Jersey – Ascend, Verano, Curaleaf, AYR, and TerrAscend – have each reached the three-store maximum under the state’s cannabis law. The five companies combined account for 15 of the state’s 21 stores.
The other three firms — GTI, Acreage, and Columbia Care — own the other half dozen stores with two apiece. If they choose, these three firms can still each open one more store — but that would only take the state’s store count to 24 to serve a population of over 9 million residents.
A recent trade report warned that New Jersey has the fewest number of stores to support a population of its size among the states that have legalized recreational marijuana.
What’s to come
New Jersey dispensary licensing has been nothing but a waiting game for micro-businesses. Here at Scarlet Reserve, we hope to see NJ improve these processes so that more micro canna-businesses, like ourselves, can get issued an annual license.