Volley Hayhurst had just finished donning a disposable lab coat when he glanced at his mobile phone and let out an enthusiastic “Yes!”
“My phone is blowing up. The results just came back,” said Hayhurst, vice president of operations at Columbia Care’s new 270,000-square-foot cannabis growing and packaging facility in Vineland, N.J. “We have something fun and new for the market.”
It’s THC-infused salt water taffy, a Shore favorite that the company will launch soon in Delaware, likely to follow eventually in New Jersey.
Demand has proved so strong for recreational weed in New Jersey since sales began in April 2022 that there are still lines each day outside most of the 17 stores that sell it. Adults are allowed to buy up to one ounce of cannabis in a visit. They can buy dried flower, concentrated oils, resin, vape formulas, tinctures, topicals, syringes, lozenges, and soft chews. But perishable edibles like brownies are not allowed. Another nine stores sell marijuana only for medical use.