Terrascend

A recreational cannabis dispensary co-owned by Jason Ackerman, the founder and former CEO of online grocery delivery service FreshDirect, is poised to launch in New Jersey.

Scheduled to open Dec. 9 in Ackerman’s hometown of Roselle Borough, Joyleaf aims to offer customers an interactive shopping experience, as well as reassure the community that its first dispensary is packed with hands-on experience in running a safe and compliant cannabis venture.

New Jersey’s approach to adult-use cannabis is nothing new: allow existing medical operators to fuel the takeoff as state regulators vet and approve aspiring market entrants.

And, so far, New Jersey’s supply chain and protections for its medical program—concerns that contributed to a two-month delay in launching adult-use sales—have remained unharmed as the legal market continues to grow, according to Columbia Care Vice President of Operations Volley Hayhurst and TerrAscend President and Chief Operating Officer Ziad Ghanem.

A new cannabis dispensary is all set to open in Mercer County in the fall.

Canna Remedies will be coming to Ewing in the fall of 2023. The dispensary will be located at 2175 Spruce Street.

The team behind Canna Remedies developed Keystone Canna Remedies, the first dispensary to open in Pennsylvania. They grew to three locations across the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos before being acquired by TerrAscend in 2021.

A New Jersey couple is facing charges of "alleged distribution of unregulated marijuana in Phillipsburg," a city in New Jersey that borders Pennsylvania. On June 30, they were arrested for third-degree distribution of over one ounce of marijuana and third-degree conspiracy to distribute over one ounce of marijuana.

The Apothecarium Lodi is the third location opened in the Garden State by TerrAscend, joining locations in Phillipsburg and Maplewood — all three offer medical marijuana to patients enrolled in the state’s program, as well as recreational adult sales.

“Built with the state’s first drive-thru, off of Route 17 and I-80, two of the busiest highways in New Jersey, we expect the Apothecarium Lodi to be a strong contributor to our growth,” TerrAscend Executive Chairman Jason Wild said in a written statement.

Just across the street, a family-owned gym was struggling. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, even going to the gym was illegal. Victor DeLuca, then serving as mayor of the Essex County town of 26,000, got word that the gym’s future was up in the air.

An empty 6,000-square-foot storefront across from a main community gathering place? That’s exactly the kind of eyesore that DeLuca had tried to avoid in his nearly quarter-century on the Maplewood Township Committee.

TerrAscend Corp. (“TerrAscend” or the “Company”) (CSE: TER) (OTCQX: TRSSF), a leading North American cannabis operator, today announced the first-ever launch of cannabis concentrates in the state of New Jersey. Kind Tree Liquid Live Resin Vape Cartridges and Kind Tree Live Resin Crumble are available exclusively at The Apothecarium Maplewood and Phillipsburg locations. The company also commenced sales of adult-use cannabis-infused edibles under its Valhalla brand.

Preparing for day one of legal sales in New Jersey

D’Amelio: I think it’s gonna be dank, to be honest. We’re gonna have a ton of consumers that are coming out and trying our products, and everyone else’s products.

I think it’s gonna be extremely efficient for us. (We are) trying to get product out the door as fast as possible from the retail side of things. We never rush cultivation, but I think that it’s gonna be a real live market for us (on day one).

Here’s what to know on the first day of legal weed in New Jersey.

Where is the nearest dispensary?

The Apothecarium in Phillipsburg is the closest New Jersey dispensary that has been cleared for recreational sales. It opens at 10 a.m. Thursday at 55 South Main Street.

Parent company TerrAscend also has an Apothecarium in Maplewood, which opens at 9 a.m.

Other New Jersey legal weed sites are:

• Verano, under the Zen Leaf banner, at its locations in Elizabeth and Lawrence at 9 a.m.

The launch of New Jersey’s long-awaited adult-use cannabis market is set for April 21, Gov. Phil Murphy announced April 14 on Twitter.

“Starting on April 21st, adults ages 21+ will be able to legally purchase cannabis and cannabis products without a medical card,” Murphy tweeted. “This is a historic step in our work to create a new cannabis industry.”

Murphy’s announcement came just three days after the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) approved seven medical cannabis dispensaries to serve the adult-use market.