All of N.J.’s Adult Legal Weed Stores Are Run by Big Corporations. That Has to Change, Many Say.
With the last big company-owned dispensary selling adult recreational marijuana in New Jersey this year up and running in Fort Lee, smaller operators like Salvatore Piazza contend the state must now focus on helping folks like himself, the so-called little guys trying to enter the nascent cannabis industry.
“It’s embarrassing for the CRC (New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission) that even though we’re so deep into it that all the state has are these multi-state operators,” said Piazza, alluding to the giant national companies that have set up shop in the Garden State and own and operate all 21 stores selling adult weed.
As he spoke, Piazza, 28, stood in front of the wooden frame of what could be the first cannabis micro-business cultivating/manufacturing facility in the state, called Full Tilt Labs, in Ewing Township.
After getting all necessary permits to begin construction on the 9,000-square foot building, Piazza broke ground three weeks ago. Full Tilt Labs is completely family-owned and operated. There’s three owners: Piazza, his mother and father.
About a month ago, Piazza completed interviews with a state CRC investigator and said he was told Full Tilt Labs would likely be on the commission’s Dec. 2 meeting agenda for annual license approval.
Piazza is among the few — the less than 20 percent of all conditional license winners expected to meet all state requirements to convert to an annual license. Piazza said an annual license means you’re here for the long haul and eager to contribute to the industry’s future in New Jersey.
But the numbers don’t bode well. Over 800 conditional licenses have been awarded by the CRC so far, and just 18 annual licenses.
“We’ll be in a supply constraint in the state of New Jersey for at least three or four years,” said Piazza of having so few stores selling adult weed. “I’m a realist. I really understand the numbers. The demand in New Jersey is huge. This is a really great state for cannabis, but you have to start getting people online, especially people like myself, a craft cultivator.”
While the big multi-state corporations that either owned or acquired facilities already selling medical marijuana in New Jersey easily expanded to selling adult weed at the same stores, it’s been anything but quick and easy for smaller operators like Piazza.
Industry experts warn if more smaller cannabis cultivators and manufacturers don’t get licensed, it will be very difficult for New Jersey’s buddying industry to get to the next level and meet consumer demand.
“New Jersey will not be able to expand its existing adult-use market until more annual licenses are distributed so that new operators can come online,” said cannabis attorney Robert DiPisa of Hackensack-based Cole Schotz in an email to NJ Advance Media.
DiPisa said the state “is going to need to focus more on getting licenses into the hands” of smaller operators and hand out conditional and annual licenses. He noted that so far, New Jersey has a low rate of converting smaller operators who have conditional licenses to the more permanent annual license status that allows them to begin operating.
The launch of adult weed sales at Ascend Fort Lee in a former Staples store on Nov. 17 is considered the last store owned by a cannabis company with a national footprint and millions of dollars a year in annual revenue to open this year, according to the CRC.
Industry experts maintain that the easy part is done since all eight national companies in New Jersey had the political connections and capital to offer recreational marijuana quickly. They contend it’s no coincidence that the multi-state operators, commonly called MSOs, got a head start from the CRC and now own and operate all 21 adult weed stores since the statewide launch on April 21.
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