High cost of legal cannabis in New Jersey irks customers

If you’re shopping for cannabis at Rise dispensary in Bloomfield, the most you’ll shell out for an eighth is $70.A short walk from the 8th Street PATH station in Manhattan, the highest price for an eighth at the new Housing Works Cannabis Co. dispensary is $60.At Rise, most eighths are $60 or more. At Housing Works, most are below $60.The price differential in the two markets separated by a river — recreational cannabis sales in New Jersey launched in April 2022, in New York on Dec. 29 — has cannabis users wondering why they’re paying so high in the Garden State.“It costs money that normal jobs don’t provide in New Jersey,” said Nicholas Scarpulla, who takes medical marijuana for nerve pain.Officials with the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the state’s medical and recreational cannabis industries, have conceded in the past that the price of marijuana remains high, but says that as more dispensaries open, that should change.“New businesses are opening every month in both the medicinal and the adult-use markets, and as competition increases, prices will begin to fall,” Jeff Brown, the commission’s executive director, said in a statement to the New Jersey Monitor.Since the industry launch, three new medical dispensaries operated by multi-state operators have opened around the state, and eight existing medical centers expanded to selling adult-use cannabis.In an October meeting, Brown said that prices have increased due to inflation, but at a slower rate than prices of other goods.“All these promises were broken in New Jersey,” said Chris Goldstein, a longtime cannabis activist working with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “They said it was impossible to open with prices below $50 to $60 an eighth. But you look at New York, how they were able to launch with reasonable pricing, it was really surprising.”For the rest of the story, click here.