The Press

Curaleaf was one of seven businesses approved to sell adult-use cannabis for New Jersey’s expanded retail launch on April 21, but the largest cannabis company in the world (by market cap) still has one of its dispensaries sitting on the sidelines.

While Curaleaf’s Bellmawr medical cannabis dispensary in South Jersey was one of 12 retail facilities that made the transition to adult-use sales last month, the company’s Edgewater Park dispensary remains a medical-only facility despite being approved by the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) to serve the new customer base.

After the Bellmawr dispensary began serving adult-use shoppers, Curaleaf officials announced they anticipated their Edgewater Park and Bordentown locations to quickly follow. But the company’s approved Edgewater Park site might take a little longer than expected to expand its operations, NJ.com reported.

Instead of joining its competitors, like Acreage Holdings, Columbia Care, Green Thumb Industries, TerrAscend and Verano, which all opened two adult-use dispensaries on April 21, Curaleaf had a police officer patrol the Edgewater Park site and turn away traffic for most of the day, the news outlet reported.

That’s because Curaleaf has yet to satisfy land-use conditions to build a larger parking lot, drainage basins and additional lights, attorney Tom Coleman, who represents the Edgewater Park Township Land Use Board, told NJ.com.

“Two years ago, they agreed that if they ever decided to sell recreational cannabis, they would come back to the board and get site plan approvals,” Coleman said.

While Curaleaf received approval for its site plan last month, it could take weeks or even months to satisfy all the conditions of the approval, NJ.com reported. In the meantime, more than 750 vehicles with would-be adult-use customers were turned away on April 21, according to the news outlet.

The other 12 dispensaries served more than 1,000 customers each, on average, that day, who spent roughly $153 dollars per transaction, according to opening day sales figures from the CRC.

Overall, the 12 retail sites sold nearly $1.9 million on April 21, or $158,300 per location on average.

“We are saddened, and outraged, to read about another fatal shooting at a cannabis dispensary,” the U.S. Cannabis Council wrote on social media Sunday. “Requiring dispensaries to conduct business largely in cash has put employees and operators in the crosshairs of criminals. We are seeing a steadily rising human toll from lack of banking access. We urgently need to take cash out of the equation. We need SAFE Banking now!”

In particular, Oakland was a hotbed for armed robbers targeting cannabis businesses during a spree of criminal activity in December.

In Washington, there were three fatal incidents involving a dispensary robbery in less than a week in March in the western part of the state. One of those incidents resulted in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old dispensary worker Jordan Brown, from Gig Harbor.

Los Angeles police did not immediately identify the victim who was killed Saturday, but Tarzana resident Maria Harris told KTLA News the victim was her 28-year-old son, Brian Garcia, who was a regular customer of the dispensary.

“My son had a good heart. He was a good kid,” she told the news outlet. “He really was. That was my firstborn baby. I don’t understand why God took him from me. I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I’m really broken in pieces, and I’m lost right now. I can’t even think straight.