Local plant shop owner Shayla Cabrera is hoping to be one of the first people to acquire a license to grow cannabis in Jersey City.
Cabrera, 33, said it feels like a natural for her to enter into the cannabis industry as she already has experience in agriculture. She hasn’t found a suitable site as a cultivation facility yet, but she already has generated interest from retailers.
“This is an opportunity for us to innovate whenever there is something new,” said Cabrera, owner of TiaPlanta in McGinley Square. “There is an opportunity for growth and new ideas and we have the opportunity to do this right and make this really equitable.
“I have already gotten a ton of dispensaries from all over the state who want to form business relationships with me without ever even trying my product, so that is the cannabis industry in a nutshell.”
Cabrera and her team — a cannabis consulting firm, an attorney, cultivation consultants and some investors — have already submitted the microbusiness application to be one of the city’s new cannabis companies.