Top New Jersey Marijuana Regulator Says State Will Be ‘Premier Cannabis Market’ On East Coast As Industry Expands
Executive, Jeff Brown, of the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission
New Jersey “can be and will be the premier cannabis market on the East Coast,” one of the state’s top marijuana regulator says as it marks new record sales and market expansion milestones.
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) Executive Director Jeff Brown also told Marijuana Moment in an interview that he’s “rooting for” neighboring New York as that state navigates its own regulatory challenges and hopes that eventually “we’ll both be able to learn from each other.”
For now, however, New Jersey is focused on building upon its cannabis industry successes—including reaching $2 billion in marijuana sales as of last month and the opening of more than 100 retailers statewide.
The majority of those sales have come in the last two years since the state’s adult-use market launched. And Brown said he thinks the Garden State will “definitely achieve” another record this year, predicting that the state will see $1 billion in sales for 2024.
Regulators at the NJ-CRC, chaired by Dianna Houenou, have also stressed that they will not be letting the medical cannabis system fall by the wayside even as they work to support the burgeoning recreational market. To that end, the commission recently eliminated the cost of obtaining a medical cannabis card.
In January, NJ-CRC also approved final rules to allow marijuana consumption lounges in the state where people could buy and use cannabis products on-site. And as that’s rolled out, advocates are hoping lawmakers will take steps to authorize home cultivation—a policy that Brown has encouraged the legislature to consider.
Marijuana Moment spoke to Brown about the state’s latest cannabis accomplishments and the future of the marketplace last week. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Marijuana Moment: You’ve mentioned that the “vast majority” of the $2 billion in cannabis sales that New Jersey has seen came from the adult-use market these past two years. To what do you attribute that exponential growth?
Jeff Brown: As you mentioned, here in New Jersey, we’ve hit a number of milestones recently. A couple of notable ones: We now have 106 dispensaries and retailers open across the state. That includes both medicinal and recreational dispensaries.
We had $800 million in combined medicinal and recreational sales in 2023 alone, and we’ve had more than $2 billion since we started first reforming the medicinal cannabis market and then expanding to adult-use cannabis sales since 2018.
At the beginning of 2018, we started to really reform medicinal cannabis after it had been really stagnant under the prior administration. And we saw sales start to increase and they really accelerated once we authorized recreational, or adult-use, sales in 2022. We’re projecting $1 billion in sales this year alone, 2024.
This year will be two years since we authorized legal sales in 2022. And as this market develops, we’re seeing more small businesses, independent businesses, get operational—retailers, cultivators and manufacturers. So the market is becoming more diverse and we’re starting to see this growing competitive market with more competitive prices as well.
MM: I know you’ve given entrepreneurs much of the credit for these sales milestones, but what role do you see regulators playing in maintaining that economic growth?
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