SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey’s medicinal- and recreational-use cannabis marketplace has surpassed the 100-dispensary milestone.
Marijuana sales in the state reached nearly $675 million last year, according to Cannabis Regulatory Commission Executive Director Jeff Brown. The agency’s dispensary directory now shows 102 medicinal and recreational cannabis dispensaries across the state.
Brown says that shows the steady progress the marketplace has made, despite more than 60% of New Jersey municipalities opting out of having cannabis businesses in their jurisdictions.
“We’re covering 20 out of 21 counties,” Brown said. “Every week, we make more progress here. We see more and more growth, and this is a huge milestone in that continuum.”
Burlington, Camden and Atlantic Counties have the highest concentration of dispensaries in the state. Salem is the only county without one, but cannabis businesses have operating licenses in every county.
“More people across the state have access to safe, legal cannabis, and each week more people can purchase it at small, diversely owned businesses,” Brown said.
He says the Commission’s initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion are on track. Regulators set up a social equity program to prioritize people of color, women and veterans in the application process. According to CRC data, about 70% of the 2,400 applications received are from diverse ownership teams — and about 71% of the licenses awarded have gone to businesses with diverse ownership teams.
“It’s working. The numbers that we’re seeing are encouraging. We can do better, but I think 18% of the awards we’ve issued have gone to majority Black-owned companies. And we’re just going to build on that progress and continue to do better,” he said.
Brown says they are surpassing population benchmarks for Black and African-American ownership and Asian-American ownership. “We still have more work to do when it comes to Hispanic and Latino ownership, and certainly we want to see these businesses get operational and succeed.”
Brown says the state will see many more retail stores open as the year progresses, and he expects legal marijuana sales to surpass $1 billion this year.