Cannabis is legal in NJ, but are people buying it legally?
- pbritt2002
- Feb 4, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 22, 2025
The first time I walked into a dispensary was about a week ago. I was terrified to go in. I am 21 and have a valid New Jersey license, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to. While it is not my preferred method of fun, it is something that I am constantly around. My friends, my family, my co-workers. I am pro-cannabis! I see, understand, and respect the positive effects of weed. I gave myself a pep talk and walked to the front door.
I was greeted by a smiling security guard in a white-walled, dimly lit room. I handed over my I.D. to a second, silent security guard. Convincing myself that somehow he was going to find a reason to kick me out, or arrest me (the rational part of me knows he probably did not have that power), he gave me a smile, motioned me towards another door, and told me to have fun.
I had suddenly stepped into another world. I can only imagine it’s how Alice felt when she arrived in Wonderland. Greeted by warm, welcoming employees, they asked me if it was my first time and walked me through the ordering process. They made sure to point out their self proclaimed “Instagram” wall and artsy rolling papers. Before I left, without even purchasing anything, an employee who looked like he should have a skateboard strapped to his side at all times walked over to me and handed me a sticker. A blue and green tye–dye dog with bloodshot eyes and a blunt hanging out of his mouth. Now, has your small town dealer ever done that?
When Keri Straub, 24 year old Glassboro, N.J. native, started smoking weed she was in her first year of college at The College of New Jersey. It was one of those things that everyone else was doing, and became a normal part of her day.
“It was just kind of like a ritual for my friends at school. Like, at the end of the night, after everybody was finished with all their work, we would all get together and we would smoke and then you know, go to bed and like, repeat this the next day,” Straub said.
This seems to be a common theme amongst habitual smokers. It begins as a way to wind down after a long day, and entwines itself into daily life so effortlessly that it becomes hard to go without. Aside from just getting high and forgetting about the world for a little while, people rely on it as a way to relieve their anxiety and physical pain.
“And then eventually it just became how I started to deal with anxiety and it was one of the only things that helped me. So, you know, it became medicine for me at that point, like, when I was anxious, I knew I could smoke and that would help me kind of level back out,” Straub said.
Luke Albus, 21, explained that he started smoking in a similar way. It began out of curiosity with coworkers in a dark restaurant parking lot two years ago, and now is a normal part of his everyday routine. Cannabis aids him in sleeping, eating, and slowing down his racing thoughts.
“So it was like, maybe like a once a week thing at first, and then eventually evolved. And once that evolution happened, that's sort of when I started smoking every day. And also, at the same time, that's when my one friend started to sell. But the entire experience of buying on the street has been something that is very simple for me. And I know it's simple for a lot of people. It's really just having that one supplier and buying from them,” Albus said.
Straub, noted friend and supplier, began selling about two years ago, coincidentally in the same year that cannabis was legalized in New Jersey.
Straub explains, “Just to help not only, like, the people around me but then of course my habits were getting to the point where I wanted to be able to support it and still be able to pay my bills and not worry about that. So it was a way to help me continue to support my habit and also help my friends kind of get cheaper prices as well.”
Although this side hustle never proved to be a fully lucrative source of income, used mainly to cover her own portion, Straub mentions that she’s witnessed former classmates “make a complete living” out of selling weed.
With the legalization of cannabis and the opening of recreational dispensaries in N.J., for those 21+, do people still have a side hustle of selling a little here and there to support their habit? Are some suppliers still making more than enough to support themselves? Are smokers still going to their friend of a friend, of a friend, (who knows a guy) when they need to restock?
Apparently, yes.
According to self proclaimed stoners, long time users, dispensary employees, and cannabis industry experts, yes. People are still buying from the street. It seems to be an accepted truth among those in the cannabis community that dispensary weed is safer and better quality. The employees are friendly, (as is expected considering where they are and the products being sold), there are plenty of locations, hours comparable to any major supermarket, and one dispensary in particular has a rewards program and a drive through! For those over 21, it could not be easier. Yet one major factor stands in the way of New Jerseyans becoming dedicated dispensary customers; the price.
Recreational, adult-use cannabis was legalized in New Jersey on February 22, 2021. Medical marijuana was initially legalized in N.J. in 2010, but the program hit numerous obstacles until about 2013, according to the Sanctuary Wellness Institute.
While medical cards may sound like a way to avoid the pricey products dispensaries sell, they can actually prove to be just as costly.
Frequent dispensary goer Yvonne Goodman, 58, looked into getting a medical card in September of 2021 to aid with her anxiety and physical pain.
“I set up an appointment, paid $200, and met with a doctor online. It was really easy,” Goodman said.
While the process was an easy one, it did not prove to be a permanent solution.
“I didn’t have the money to keep the medical card. And then I started comparing the prices and they were not that different between medical grade and dispensary,” Goodman said.
Goodman relies on cannabis, specifically in gummy form, to treat her anxiety, shoulder pain, and just pure stress-relief on difficult days. She prefers to treat her ailments naturally, so for her, it’s important to stay stocked. While she used to be able to go about three weeks in between dispensary trips, she now has to wait six to seven weeks simply because of the expense.
However, Goodman would rather go without than risk buying anything other than “flower” from the street.
On the street, an eighth of “flower” goes for about $25. “Flower” refers to the dried flowers of a cannabis plant that are then smoked or vaporized, and contain the highest concentration of THC and CBD, Sunnyside dispensary in Chicago, Illinois explains on their website. Purchasing an eighth from an N.J. dispensary can cost about double the price on the street. For habitual smokers, especially those who rely on marijuana to help with things such as anxiety and pain, dispensary prices simply may not be a feasible option.
An article from Asbury Park Press from March of this year explained that there are currently only 13 cannabis cultivators in operation in New Jersey, and only 10 of them are permitted to grow cannabis for adult use purposes. For those, like myself, who read this and said, “what?”, this essentially means that supply is low, and demand is very, very high. The puns write themselves, but let's get serious.
Ryan Crane, founder of a cannabis beverage brand, commercial strategist for a large corporate cannabis operator, and Rowan University entrepreneurship professor, got into the nitty gritty on just what contributes to the prices New Jerseyans are seeing in dispensaries.
Crane explained, “States have legalized cannabis but it is federally illegal, which breeds some complicated issues for operators. They cannot move products across state lines. That makes it difficult for operators because in business, you may want to produce in one facility or region and then ship it to other states. In cannabis you can’t do that and that makes it difficult.”
Crane continues, saying, “It operates on a smaller scale which makes it less efficient and more costly. It also creates tax complications since cannabis is federally illegal. A lot of standard services may not be available to cannabis operators. So this could be services of a bank account, or loans, or other sources of institutional capital that are hard to come by because operators may not want to touch cannabis because of its federal legality. Each state is a little bit different, so each state plays its own game.”
Essentially, dispensary prices are as high as they are because of N.J. regulations, and the newness of cannabis’ legality in the state.
This is not to say that dispensaries are unsuccessful. Or to say that the price is not a guarantee of a certain level of not just quality, but also of safety.
“It's probably like a third of the price if you go get weed instead of buying from a dispensary. But at the same time, like I said, the quality of dispensary weed is just so much better. And it has the potential to be so much safer than buying off of the street. Because although I have a reputable source, that source is still buying from other people, right? Who was probably buying from other people because street weed is basically like a long chain of growers, sellers, etc. So you never really know exactly where you're getting some of this stuff from. And we don't live in a place where weed being laced is prevalent, like the cities or something, but it's still a possibility. So it still has some danger to it,” Albus said.
That being said, the price is still something that stands in the way of daily users.
“Yeah, so like, to go to the dispensary? It's like, you know, a little treat for myself,” Straub said.
Nova Farms, located in Woodbury, N.J., has been open since May of this year. Decked out with neon lights and a cool, vibey, interior, Nova Farms offers customers a wide range of products. They have a simple ordering system, a VIP rewards program, and a drive through. And they don’t only sell forms of weed; they have merch! Customers can purchase beanies, sweatshirts, and t-shirts.
Ulysses Braxon, retail supervisor at Nova Farms, summed up everything pretty simply: people are probably going to continue to do whatever it is they have always done.
“If you were buying from the street before you’re probably still doing it, when you want to treat yourself you come to a dispensary,” Braxon said.
Braxon witnesses a wide variety of customers enter Nova Farms. From freshly turned 21 year olds to people in their 80’s, in all shapes, colors, and sizes. While he does hear people lament about the price, Braxon explains that buying from a dispensary allows people to “understand what’s actually in it.”
Marjiuna has a long history of stigmatization. Obviously, we have come a long way from the days of genuinely believing it to be the Devil’s lettuce.
“The stigmatization really came up in cannabis in the early 20th century when states started to outlaw it, and then it was made federally illegal in a tax bill in the 30s. And that’s kind of where the stigma came from. Originally, the stigma was used to target specific minority groups, such as immigrants and African Americans. It was pitched as this thing that was going to make you go crazy. That was early cannabis stigmatization. Around the mid 20th century, you got a new enemy in town. The stigma shifted to something that wasn’t going to make you go crazy and harm your family, but it was going to make you lazy and sit on your couch, almost the polar opposite. It has been pitched in a way that has made people very afraid of cannabis. Now that has shifted quite dramatically lately. People have more access to research, so we know that it is not harmful in the ways that it was always presented as. We’ve also seen it played out in states that have legalized cannabis, and we haven’t seen any major issues in it. People are able to responsibly consume it,” Crane said.
For some people, their cannabis consumption is something they feel they have to hide. For these people, dispensaries provide a space to ask questions, talk, and learn about cannabis safely. There is a unique sense of community formed, where you will not be judged by your appearance, where you come from, or if you’re a newbie. If you want to buy weed to help with your anxiety, pain, sleep, or just to have fun, you can safely visit a dispensary.
“We have a lot of older people that come here that stand and talk to us for maybe five, ten minutes because the rest of their older friends don’t necessarily like smoking or think highly of cannabis. Here, it’s a friendly thing. We’re the only people they can talk to about it. Stuff like that is gratifying,” Braxon said.
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