Massachusetts

Sanctuary Cannabis, a respected leader in the cannabis industry, is coming to Scotch Plains, the company announced Thursday.

Also known as Sanctuary Medicinals, the company has established a strong presence in multiple states, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida, and is now eagerly entering the New Jersey market to connect with the community by delivering high-quality products and superior customer service, company officials said.

Nova Farms, the Northeast’s largest privately owned, vertically integrated cannabis operator, will open its flagship retail cannabis dispensary in Woodbury on May 19th. The new cannabis dispensary will be the state’s first non-conversion exclusively recreational adult-use dispensary.

Assume, for a moment, you want to get high. And you want to do it on the cheap.

For around $300, you can drive to Massachusetts, pick up an ounce (about $200), and drive back. For $450, you can even hop on a flight to Denver, buy an ounce (about $40) and fly back.

There are flaws with these plans. After all, it's still a felony to transport even legally-purchased cannabis across state lines, even between states that allow it.

But if cost is the main concern? It's cheaper than buying legal weed at most dispensaries in New Jersey.

In a Jan. 24 press release, the Massachusetts-based multistate operator announced its Grassroots brand premium cannabis flower and pre-rolls are now on the shelves at Curaleaf retail stores in Edgewater Park, Bordentown and Bellmawr.

A spokesperson for Curaleaf said Grassroots also will be available through select wholesale partners in New Jersey, including: Ayr Wellness (Garden State), Rise Dispensaries (GTI), Zen Leaf (Verano), Apothecarium (TerrAscend), Cannabist (Columbia Care), The Botanist (Acreage Holdings), Ascend (Ascend Wellness) and Valley Wellness.

New Jersey's Cannabis Regulatory Commission has had the somewhat unenviable task of overseeing the debut of recreational-use marijuana sales in the state, but after three months some areas of concern are emerging.

And there don't seem to be ready-made answers, according to Todd Polyniak, who leads the cannabis practice for Parsippany-based firm Sax, LLC and works with clients who have applied for recreational retail licenses.

Cresco Labs is expected to sell off $250 million-$500 million worth of marijuana cultivation and retail licenses largely to meet state license limits as part of its planned $2 billion acquisition of rival Columbia Care.

Company executives told analysts that Chicago-based multistate operator Cresco “will likely” divest assets in Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio because of overlapping operations with New York-headquartered Columbia Care in limited-license markets.

What is expected to be America's largest cannabis market is still stuck in limbo as New York legislators hammer out the details.

When will consumers be able to walk into a store and buy cannabis?

"We don't know, we don't know," Patrik Jonsson, northeast regional president at Curaleaf, told Insider. "And not just on the timeline, but also what we're going to be allowed to do," he said.

Ascend, which completed its initial public offering (IPO) in May, has operations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois including its flagship retail locations. A pending investment in New York will give Ascend access to that market — one of the hottest new markets to approve cannabis for recreational use. The company looks to grow into other limited license recreational or near-recreational markets. Examples of such markets include Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Arizona.

The resolution will bolster the efforts of Insa of Easthampton, Massachusetts, to get a state license to grow marijuana for the medical market at a former seafood processing plant, said Committeeman Theron “Ike” Gandy.

As approved, the resolution cites the potential economic benefit of redeveloping an otherwise blighted property.

One neighbor emphatically opposed the plan at the start of the meeting Monday, but the committee has backed the idea for years as Insa has sought one of 24 medical cannabis licenses available in the state.

In a recently filed lawsuit, the cannabis retailer Stem revealed that the city of Haverhill, Massachusetts, is charging its three cannabis businesses a total of $1.3 million in annual impact fees—and $866,930 of that total is earmarked for the town’s police department.

Those impact fees are being charged despite the fact that myths about cannabis businesses boosting crime have been debunked time and time again. In fact, there’s evidence that cannabis legalization can actually improve local crime clearance rates.