After a state passes recreational adult use cannabis, there is often a long delay before sales actually begin. That’s because there is a tremendous amount of thought that needs to go into regulation.
One issue that New Jersey considered was how their new recreational market would affect existing medical patients. The state wanted to ensure that those patients would be able to get the medicine they needed, without having to worry about the long lines that the state rightly expected. The answer for New Jersey was to institute a mandatory 2 hour per day period where retail locations would only serve medical patients. But five of the seven multi state operator companies did not honor that regulation during the first week of operations, and have now been fined, heavily. Verano, Green Thumb Industries, Ascend Wellness Holdings, Acerage Holdings, and Curaleaf were all reported to have been fined between $50,000 and $90,000 each for such violations. Columbia Care and TerrAscend were the only other companies operating that week, and they did honor the special medical hours, so were not fined. Curaleaf issued a statement to Cannabis Business Times which acknowledged responsibility, but also explained it away. They said, “During the first few days of adult-use sales in New Jersey, we were responding to the overwhelming lines and demand at our facility for adult use. Because of sales and events leading up to the first days of adult-use sales, a vast number of our medical patients had stocked up on products before the 21st, resulting in virtually no lines at our facility at the time. Medical patients who came to Curaleaf during these days were immediately prioritized over recreational consumers and served almost immediately with no wait. We continue to prioritize our medical patients and are now living up to our promise to provide two designated hours to the medical community at each of our locations every day.” Since the first week of sales, no more violations of this rule have been reported. Comments are closed.
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