When Gov. Phil Murphy ordered a review of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program in January, he said he was open to allowing the dispensaries to deliver marijuana to patients. Most of Oregon’s recreational dispensaries offer delivery services.
“You’ve got home delivery in a lot of states right now,” said Aaron Epstein, general manager of Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge. “One of the things that we see is that there is really two ways of handling it. One being third party delivery companies…or doing it internally.”
Around 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night in mid-February, the NW Cannabis Club in Portlandwas relaxed. Less than two dozen people sat spread around a cozy, if shabby, lounge area on the top floor. A handful of people, who had a dog with them, sat at one table, sharing a bong.
Downstairs there weren’t any people, but there were more sunken couches, table games and community smoking contraptions. A scant amount of crumbled marijuana was scattered on a bar top next to a pack of rolling papers.
Twenty dollars buys a lifetime membership to the cannabis club and members need only pay $5 per visit to come inside and smoke their marijuana. Legally.
Most states that have legalized marijuana require that it be consumed in a private residence. Smoking in public still solicits a citation. Oregon has gotten around this by allowing social consumption lounges, though they haven’t proliferated.
Denver just issued its first license allowing a social use coffee shop, the Denver Post reported. Customers will be allowed to vape (vaporize marijuana) and eat edibles, but they won’t be allowed to smoke.
New Jersey state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, has floated the idea of “consumption zones” where people could consume marijuana.
Investing
Those who want in on the marijuana industry but aren’t feeling entrepreneurial can still get a piece by investing in the stock of marijuana companies. Bloomberg reported this week that Nasdaq has listed its first cannabis stock: Cronos Group Inc.
Other cannabis companies have their stock listed on other, lesser-known exchanges, including the company Medicine Man Technology.
Medicine Man CEO Brett Roper said the industry thought there was no chance the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the stock market, would allow cannabis companies to be listed. But then it did.
“We on the sideline said there’s no way in hell this is going through,” Roper said. “Quietly and surprisingly the SEC said cannabis was legal in the public marketplace. We all scratched our heads and said ‘what the hell just happened?'”
The list goes on
The arms of the marijuana industry listed above do not comprise an exhaustive list of ways to make money in cannabis. Just in the growing process alone there are countless other options: Lighting, soil, chemicals and filtration, to name a few.
Industry insiders figure New Jersey could generate more than $1 billion in cannabis revenue if recreational marijuana were to become legal in the state. Many experts say that number is conservative.
Recreational bills have been introduced in both the state Senate and Assembly, but it’s unclear if they have the momentum to advance. Gov. Murphy has said he would sign a bill legalizing marijuana.
So how much money can you make?
The amount of money that can be made in the legal cannabis market is huge. Bridget Hill-Zayat, a cannabis attorney with the Hoban Law Group in Philadelphia, told state lawmakers on Monday that the recreational cannabis industry in the United States is already worth $10 billion per year. It grows with every state that goes recreational.
Still, reliable income estimates for the above jobs are hard to come by, experts say. They change drastically depending on the state and the specific laws. Plenty of cultivators and dispensaries have either had to sell their licenses or go out of business in states like Oregon and Washington, while companies like Kush Bottles rake in millions every year.
credit:nj.com