There are currently 23 existing medical cannabis dispensaries in New Jersey, and those that have been operational for at least one year can apply for licensure to serve both patients and adult-use customers under the cannabis legislation that was signed last year.
These medical dispensaries will likely be the first to sell to the recreational market once they complete a transition guidance document and get approval from the CRC.
Matt Harrell, vice president of the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association (NJCTA), and vice president of government relations at Curaleaf, says that the guidance document asks existing medical cannabis dispensaries to outline specific information such as where they are with capacity, how they are going to service their current medical patients, and how the supply would work for adult-use, to ensure that availability of product for medical patients would not be interrupted.
Curaleaf, New Jersey’s largest medical dispensary, has already submitted its guidance document to the CRC, and at press time, is awaiting approval.
“We are ready to go,” Joe Bayern, CEO of Curaleaf, tells New Jersey Business Magazine. “We have been ready to go for a number of months. We have spent tens of millions of dollars building cultivation and transportation capacity to be able to serve the marketplace. We’ve hired hundreds of people to start producing product. As far as we understand, there is really nothing that is precluding us from getting started now.”