We’re a few days in to sales of recreational marijuana in New Jersey, and at two of the dispensaries in the state, in Deptford and Vineland, things have been going smoothly.
These two stores are run by Columbia Care. Ngiste Abebe is vice president for public policy. That first day was, in her words, really wonderful.
“We had folks lined up around the building but customers were so patient and it was just a really joyful spirit, I think,” she said. “We heard from a lot of customers that they had been waiting their whole lives for this day.”
The stores will be open just two hours in the afternoon at least thru Wednesday to preserve supplies but will eventually expand their hours.
Abebe said most sales are not purely recreational.
“Even on the so-called recreational side,” she said, “about 65 to 75 percent of people who come in are buying for a health or wellness reason, the top three being pain, anxiety and insomnia.”
She said they had to monitor supplies.
“We did have to institute a basket size limit to make sure we could serve as many customers as possible,” she said, “but all our customers understood and were excited to make their first purchase and come back in the future.”
Abebe said the company’s experience setting up dispensaries in other states helped things go smoothly here.
She said that more than 4% of the first weekend’s proceeds will go to a local church to help those whose lives have taken a wrong turn because of marijuana-related convictions.