Recreational weed sales in N.J. neared $25 million in the first month - from only 12 stores

Sales at Curaleaf’s cannabis store in Bellmawr have exploded since recreational sales started April 21, now approaching an annual run rate of $100 million in revenue, the company’s executive chairman, Boris Jordan, told stock analysts this month.

“We were probably running at about a little bit less than half that as medical,” Jordan said, adding that the store benefits from its proximity to the Pennsylvania border. “That number keeps picking up every single day as we’re introducing more products and as demand builds.”

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Jordan also said that supplies in New Jersey are extraordinarily tight, insuring high prices for consumers. That means wholesale prices are “at the top level” of $4,500 to $5,000 a pound, Jordan said. “New Jersey is a very high margin market right now.”

Separately, Curaleaf’s Edgewater Park medical cannabis store started recreational sales Wednesday, the company said, giving the Philadelphia region a third option for legal pot purchases ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

Curaleaf’s Bellmawr location and Columbia Care’s Cannabist store in Deptford were open for recreational sales on April 21, the first day they were allowed by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

The regulators gave Curaleaf a green light to start recreational sales at its Edgewater Park outlet, at 4237 U.S. 130, last month. But the company still had to secure final municipal approvals. Edgewater Park, which sits across the Delaware River from Croydon, is the state’s 13th location for legal marijuana purchases.

Meanwhile, at a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission reported that overall recreational sales in just 12 stores totaled $24.2 million for the first month. (It did not report sales data for individual companies such as Curaleaf.)

“We do anticipate that this will ramp particularly as new dispensaries are approved, new cultivators are approved, and a lot of the conditional applicants that we have approved are able to come back and convert to annual licenses and begin operating,” Commission Executive Director Jeff Brown said at the meeting.

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During the meeting, the commission took steps that will boost supplies, but did not address complaints about high prices for cannabis, which remains illegal under federal law.

The agency approved two new cultivation facilities, one for Columbia Care in Vineland and one for Ayr Wellness in Lakewood. The commission also decided that a new set of medical cannabis companies, part of a 2019 application round, will not have to wait a year after opening to expand into recreational sales, as originally required. Instead, they will only have to prove that they are serving the medical market well and have adequate supplies.

Many of those businesses — four vertically integrated companies, 10 standalone cultivators, and 30 retailers — are expected to be open by the end of this year.

In addition, the commission approved the expansion of five additional medical cannabis outlets in central and northern New Jersey into recreational sales. Those stores are in Eatontown, Lodi, Montclair, Union, and Woodbridge. They still have to go through the final licensing stages, and then it will be up to the companies when they start recreational sales, Brown said.