Business
Poll Explores New Jersey Consumer Attitudes, Habits Year Into Market Launch
Even though New Jersey’s adult-use cannabis market officially opened a little over a year ago, it’s never too early to take a pulse check of sorts regarding the Garden State’s emerging weed industry.
Stockton University released the results of a new poll of 660 New Jersey residents April 25, 2023, exploring consumer attitudes and actions as the market continues to take shape. Stockton University students texted cell phones with invitations to take the survey online, with Opinion Services supplementing the dialing portion of the field work to cell and landline telephones. Polling took place from April 1-14, 2023.
Learning About the New Jersey Cannabis Consumer
The poll explored a number of issues surrounding cannabis, including general consumer shopping habits, attitudes and behaviors in the year since the market launched. According to the poll, about one-third of New Jersey adults have used cannabis or cannabis products since recreational cannabis was legalized, and most users said they were happy to patronize a legal weed dispensary.
Among legal cannabis consumers, 47% said they used it for recreational purposes and 39% said they consumed it for both medical and recreational purposes, while just 13% used it strictly for medicinal purposes. Despite boasting some of the highest prices in the country, 69% of users bought products from a licensed cannabis dispensary, and 86% reported that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the experience.
Expanding upon the widely-reported satisfying dispensary experience, 43% of consumers said they appreciated knowing that products were safe and 23% said they liked the quality. Only 7% of respondents approved of New Jersey’s cannabis prices.
Looking at cannabis big pictures, a majority of respondents (53%) supported having dispensaries in their own town selling recreational cannabis (39% opposed). When asked about the potential for adding cannabis to New Jersey’s hospitality industry, with offerings like cannabis-infused restaurants, consumption lounges and more, it was more evenly split, with 48% in support and 45% opposed.
Reluctance Toward the Legal Market and Demographic Findings
While in the minority, the poll also explored the habits and attitude of residents and consumers who have yet to embrace the legal market. When asked why they have not visited a legal dispensary yet, the most commonly reported reason among respondents (30%) was that there was no dispensary nearby. Currently, there are 24 retail shops across the state.
Other reasons included preference for products sold elsewhere (13%) and the general cost (11%). Twenty-seven percent of respondents indicated “some other reason.” Additionally, 30% of respondents admitted they had purchased cannabis or cannabis products from unlicensed individual sellers in the past year.
The poll also offers some demographic insights on New Jersey’s cannabis users. Men (37%) were more likely than women (28%) to consume cannabis, and people under 50 were also more likely to have consumed cannabis in the past year. Specifically, 43% of 18- to 29-year-olds and 41% of 30- to 49-year-olds consumed cannabis, while only 17% of senior citizens did the same, with half strictly using cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Black people had the highest cannabis usage (39%), followed by white people (33%) and Hispanic/Latino respondents (29%), and there were no differences in usage between different regions of the state and those with or without a college degree. Democrats were also more likely (38%) to consume cannabis than Republicans (24%) or independents (32%).
While it’s still early, and a year only offers so much information, the findings highlight some of the challenges of New Jersey’s legal cannabis industry so far, along with the demand for cannabis in the state. Even though prices may be high and dispensary accessibility is still an issue, it appears consumers are generally still willing to travel and pay up to have access to safe, high-quality products.
Business
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Business
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Business
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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