Industry analysts say that it’s just the beginning of what is set to become very big business, not just in New Jersey, but in New York as well, and throughout the Northeast. A notable portion of the potentially mammoth profits are slated to benefit communities, mostly of color, that have been disproportionally impacted by marijuana arrests over the years.
Whether or not that happens remains an open question, some people in those communities said. What’s not in dispute is that the recreational marijuana industry in the tri-state area — the nation’s most populous region — is on course to both break records and set precedents for sales.
“It’s definitely a serious, serious amount of money here,” said Precious Osage-Erese, chief operations officer of Roll-up Life, a New Jersey-based company that delivers products that are derived from cannabis.
Charlotte Hanna, the CEO of Rebelle, a Massachusetts dispensary with its headquarters based in Brooklyn, talked specific values of companies like hers joining the adult use marijuana trade.
“These licenses traded for 50, 60 million dollars in New York and 200 and something million, we just heard recently,” Hanna said in an interview, “because they can make that back in a few months.”