New Jersey sold $24,201,875 in cannabis in 212,433 transactions in its first 30 days of adult use sales, state officials announced in the monthly Cannabis Regulatory Commission meeting yesterday. The CRC also approved the first conditional adult use retail licenses and four more medical dispensaries for adult use sales.
Executive director Jeff Brown congratulated his agency, saying “It has gone about as smoothly as we could hope,” during the first month. “While this $24 million number sounds big, there is still a tremendous opportunity for people to come into this market and be successful.”
[Read the list of newly approved licenses]
Indeed, New Jersey’s first month of sales was considerably short of Illinois’ current monthly sales, which posted $131.8 million of adult use sales in April, after 26 months of adult use operation. Illinois has a population of just over 13 million, while New Jersey has 9.2 million people. The evidence suggests that the Garden State still has much more room for growth.
To attain that growth, the state’s number of enthusiastic new licensees continued to climb Tuesday, as the CRC awarded conditional licenses to the first 11 new retailers, 22 new cultivators, 13 new manufacturers, and awarded annual licenses to 4 testing laboratories. As of today, there are 92 licensed cultivators and 45 manufacturers.
The CRC also approved adult use licensing for five Alternative Treatment Center locations, including AYR/Garden State Dispensary’s Woodbridge, Union Township, and Eatontown locations, Ascend New Jersey’s Montclair location, and TerrAscend New Jersey’s Lodi dispensary. Also approved were second cultivation locations for Columbia Care New Jersey in Vineland and for AYR/Garden State Dispensary in Lakewood.
Executive director Brown also announced plans to begin reporting on a quarterly basis, starting June 23, diversity and other aggregate demographic statistics for cannabis industry employees throughout the state.
The next CRC meeting is scheduled for June 21, 2022.
