Tag Archives: retail

New York’s Cannabis Boom Is Real, But So Are the Risks

By Hirsh Jain
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The Most Exciting US Market 

No cannabis market in the United States has experienced a more compelling growth trajectory over the past two years than New York. After a halting and often-criticized launch, the state’s legal adult-use market has accelerated at an unmatched pace. 

In 2023, New York generated a paltry $100 million in legal cannabis sales, far short of its expected market potential of (at least) $5 billion. In 2024, that figure expanded to approximately $900 million, nearly a tenfold increase. By 2025, sales climbed again to almost $1.8 billion, nearly doubling year over year.

Looking ahead, cannabis sales have the potential to approach $2.5 billion in 2026, reinforcing New York’s position as the most exciting growth market in U.S. cannabis. But rapid growth at the market level does not guarantee success for individual operators. 

In fact, the very forces driving New York’s expansion are also introducing a set of structural risks that cannabis businesses must be prepared to navigate.

Growth Fueled by Store Proliferation, and the Consequences

New York’s sales surge has been driven primarily by the rapid expansion of retail access. At the start of 2024, the state had approximately 50 licensed dispensaries open for business, far too few to adequately serve a state with a population of 20 million people.

By the end of 2024, that number had grown to more than 275 dispensaries, more than a fivefold increase. That torrid growth continued the next year; by the end of 2025, there were more than 525 dispensaries open in New York. Projections suggest the state will have more than 750 licensed stores by the end of 2026.

This dramatic increase in storefronts has undeniably improved consumer access, grown the legal market, and helped displace illicit sales. But it has also begun to strain retail economics. According to the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), annualized retail sales per store declined from roughly $5 million in Q3 and Q4 of 2024 to approximately $3.8 million in Q2 and Q3 of 2025. 

Whether this decline persists remains to be seen. And it may be that there are other factors besides additional dispensaries driving the reduction in per-store sales. However, the recent decline has been significant and suggests that competition on a per-store basis may be intensifying faster than demand is growing.

If so, the implication is clear: simply opening a dispensary is no longer sufficient for financial success in New York. Retailers now face a much more competitive environment in which weak business practices, poor inventory management, undifferentiated product selection, or subpar customer experience can quickly threaten viability. 

The next phase of New York’s market will reward operators who invest in brand, service quality, and customer loyalty, and punish those who assume market growth alone will carry them forward.

Supply-Chain Risk and the Danger of a Credit Bubble

Notably, retail pressure may not stay confined to the retail tier. As some New York dispensaries struggle to maintain margins and cash flow, downstream effects are already emerging. In some cases, retailers have fallen behind on payments to distributors and manufacturers, creating stress across the cannabis supply chain.

The industry has seen this movie before. In California, the collapse of distributor HERBL in 2023 sent shockwaves through the market, leaving cultivators and manufacturers with millions in unpaid receivables. Many of these businesses ended up folding along with HERBL.

Perhaps this is too alarmist. New York, one might argue, is not California. But the risk is analogous. Some distributors in New York are already reporting difficulties collecting from retailers, raising concerns about a potential credit bubble forming beneath the surface of the market’s headline growth.

As such, all participants (retailers, distributors, brands) need to exercise caution in choosing partners, setting payment terms, and managing credit exposure. Growth without discipline can quickly become destabilizing, especially in a young market where balance sheets are still fragile. 

At a minimum, New York operators should monitor the OCM delinquency list, also known as the “C.O.D.” (cash on delivery) list, to identify businesses that have failed to pay suppliers on time and help ensure they do not become entangled with business partners that are not creditworthy.

Discounting Comes With Rules

In November 2025, New York’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) approved updated marketing rules that allow dispensaries, for the first time, to offer traditional retail promotions, including discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, reward points, bundled pricing, and temporary sales. As they face increased competition, New York retailers may attempt to remain competitive through this newly allowed practice of discounting. 

But discounting in New York is far from a free-for-all, and operators who misunderstand the rules risk costly compliance violations. For instance, cannabis products may not be sold below their “market value”, defined as the minimum retail price, set at 1.5 times the wholesale price paid by the retailer for the discounted product. 

In addition, when a product is discounted, the retail excise tax must still be calculated on the pre-discounted price. If a $10 item is discounted to, say, $8, the excise tax is still applicable to the pre-discounted price of $10.

This requirement means retailers must ensure their POS systems are properly configured to handle discounted pricing without underpaying taxes. This is a nontrivial operational challenge for businesses already stretched thin.

The Illicit Market Still Looms Large

Even as the legal market grows in New York, the continued presence of unlicensed cannabis retailers remains a major threat to legal operators. Illicit stores continue to siphon demand, depress legal prices, and undermine the regulated market’s ability to fully realize its potential. 

By the OCM’s own admission, enforcement against illicit cannabis operators stalled in 2025 – with just 2,017 “enforcement actions” undertaken in 2025, compared to 5,215 such actions undertaken in 2024. 

The OCM has cited the completion of a well-funded 2024 multi-agency enforcement task force as a key reason for the dip in enforcement in 2025. This lack of enforcement against unlicensed activity helps explain much of the 25% decline in annualized retail sales per store – from $5 million to $3.8 million – that occurred in New York in 2025.

Given this concerning reality, legal operators must immediately press policymakers, particularly Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, to enforce existing laws against illegal cannabis sales. Such a commitment was glaringly absent from Governor Hochul’s “State of The State” address on January 13th, where other cannabis priorities were mentioned but New York’s growing illicit cannabis market was not.

And the case for enforcement should not be framed solely as an industry concern. Under the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), passed with much fanfare in March 2021, legal cannabis tax revenue is earmarked for non-profits, community organizations, and social programs. And so, any lapse in enforcement that politicians enable directly jeopardizes those commitments.

Legal cannabis businesses should be proactive in communicating this message, in partnership with the local non-profits and social organizations that depend on cannabis tax revenue. Working together, these parties should make clear that enforcement against illegal activity is essential to delivering on the social justice goals that political leaders like Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani so frequently and poetically invoke in their discussion of cannabis policy on the campaign trail.

And they should make clear that rhetoric alone is not enough from politicians. They must insist, vocally, that sustained enforcement is the only way to protect the legal cannabis supply chain and the long-promised public benefits tied to it.

METRC, Product Inversion, and the Integrity of the Supply Chain

Another looming challenge is the continued risk of product inversion, cannabis from outside New York entering the legal supply chain. This threatens compliant operators, particularly in-state brands that are already operating with limited capital and thin margins.

The ongoing implementation of METRC, currently being challenged by a recently filed lawsuit, is essential to protecting the integrity of New York’s market. But it must be handled carefully. 

Going forward, the state needs to provide operators, especially smaller ones, with adequate guidance, training, and technical support to comply with the METRC system. A chaotic or poorly supported rollout could disrupt the supply chain and inflict irreparable harm on businesses that are attempting to follow the rules.

At the same time, indefinite delays in METRC implementation would prove problematic. Without a fully operational track-and-trace system, bad actors will be able to continue to invert illegal product and legal operators would be disproportionately harmed. New York must thread the needle: implementing METRC effectively, without perpetual delay, while ensuring it does not become another unintended obstacle to legal commerce.

In addition, S.8951, a bill recently introduced by Senator Jeremy Cooney, can also help keep illicit cannabis out of New York’s regulated market. As the Empire State Green Standard Alliance, which advocates for New York cannabis consumers, has noted, the bill clearly defines cannabis inversion, makes it explicitly illegal, and backs enforcement with real consequences, including major financial penalties, license revocation, lab accountability, personal liability for responsible executives, and strong whistleblower protections.

Taken together, these measures, if successfully implemented, can help address the inversion that has tainted New York’s legal cannabis market.

A Market Worth Betting On, With Eyes Wide Open

The growth in New York’s cannabis market over the past two years has been extraordinary, and the runway ahead remains long. But this is no longer a market where every operator will rise with the tide. The next phase will separate disciplined, well-capitalized, customer-focused businesses from those unprepared for competition, compliance, and financial pressure.

For operators willing to navigate these challenges thoughtfully, New York remains one of the most important cannabis opportunities in America. For those who mistake growth for inevitability, it may prove far less forgiving.

How Cannabis Brands Plan To Drive Retail Sales in 2026

By Cannabis Industry Journal Staff
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Retailers are not in the business of building brands. They are in the business of selling products. The most effective way to earn buyer attention is still the same: proven sales velocity paired with brand awareness that brings customers through the door.

Retail Is the Battleground

Brendan McKee, co-founder of Massachusetts dispensary Silver Therapeutics, wants brands to fully commit to retail partnerships. “Brands that we have in store and collaborate with in more meaningful ways share dedicated emails and social posts with their customers,” he said. “For new store openings and operating locations, brands bring in food trucks, pop-up materials, merch giveaways, and product discounts.” The store also offers co-branded print and digital ads from brands to amplify collective reach. “It is a beautiful thing when brands show up for our teams and retail locations. We are always better together,” added McKee.

Jesse Tolz, VP of Marketing at Gotham dispensaries in New York, agrees that experiences leave a deeper impression than discounts. “The most effective strategic partners invest in experiences that build brand awareness,” he said. “Product collaborations and experiential activations consistently outperform traditional promotions because they create emotional attachment rather than relying solely on transactional incentives.”

Tolz pointed to an upcoming event built around Gotham Goods’ line of body and home essentials, anchored in the idea that ritual is a catalyst for connection. The Feb. 10 launch will introduce the collection through an immersive evening of scent discovery and product sampling at Gotham Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan.

For Monica Olano, founder of Cali Sober Market in Louisiana, the most powerful in-store marketing tactic is still human-to-human connection at the point of sale. “On any given day, I can predict which SKUs will move best based on who’s working, because they believe in those brands and understand the ingredients and effects,” she said. “Brands that treat getting on the shelf as the finish line will stall. The ones that win treat it as the starting point by investing in staff education, relationships, and ongoing presence.” When employees become believers, they don’t just drive sales; they become advocates.

 

How Brands Are Showing Up at Retail

As the industry matures, consumers are increasingly walking into dispensaries with specific brands in mind. Still, standing out remains difficult in a crowded market when everyone basically sells the same thing and competes on the same promotions. In categories where vapes and gummies are largely built on distillate and flavor innovation, brands cannot afford to let their marketing guard down. Should brands focus on multiple marketing levers or execute a few tactics really well? What’s the best way to impact the customer’s experience?

For Olio, a Colorado-based craft brand focused on live resin and rosin, driving retail sales starts outside the dispensary. Chief Marketing Officer James C. says his team prioritizes education-forward social settings, such as crafting sessions, recurring community events, and terpene pairings, that allow consumers to engage with the brand in a relaxed, hands-on environment. According to James, these experiential activations consistently outperform in-store pop-ups when it comes to creating first-time buyers.

At Alibi, budtenders are the focal point. “They are the ones guiding the purchase, so when they truly understand the product and the story behind it, sales follow naturally,” said Marianne Cursetjee. The brand invests heavily in budtender education, both in person and online, ensuring staff are eager to recommend Alibi on the floor.

Ryan Hunter, Chief Revenue Officer at Colorado-based Spherex, agrees that budtenders are the true gatekeepers. He warns that a single recommendation at the counter can change a shopper’s decision instantly. A budtender who recommends your product or wears your logo, he said, is worth more than any billboard.

Hunter added that the smartest teams show up consistently in dispensaries, but not through flashy pop-ups that reach only a handful of shoppers. Instead, they invest in long-term retail partnerships, supporting staff with simple gestures like lunch, swag, or operational support. “An effective cannabis marketing program supports the entire funnel,” he said, “from first awareness through repeat purchase.”

Carol Tyson, the Director of Marketing for Jaunty, a leading New York producer, emphasized their efforts to increase basket size in stores.

She said, in 2026, brands need to think less about one-off moments and more about creating repeatable levers that actually help retailers sell more product per visit. “For us, education and visual merchandising still matter—but only if they’re directly tied to increasing basket size and brand recall,” she said.

“Budtenders are our first customers. When they understand how a product fits into a consumer’s routine—whether that’s daytime focus, social use, or winding down—they’re better equipped to recommend complementary products and build a multi-item basket. That’s where in-person education still wins,” adds Tyson. “It’s not just about sampling; it’s about giving budtenders the language and confidence to upsell thoughtfully.

On the merchandising side, shelf space is incredibly competitive, especially in New York. So they invest in displays and menu placements that work harder—clear visual cues, simple product architecture, and messaging that helps consumers quickly understand the brand and what to add next. “When a display helps a consumer self-navigate or sparks a conversation that leads to a second or third item in the basket, that’s when marketing dollars are actually doing their job,” she explains.

Tyson believes the brands that will win in 2026 are those that align their marketing with retail outcomes—sell-through, basket size, and repeat purchase.

David Paleschuck of the Branding Bud Consulting Group agrees that retail success comes from orchestration, not isolated tactics. “There is no single tool, tactic, or growth hack that drives retail success on its own,” he said. “The real power comes from linking systems together to create relevance.”

By aggregating location data, weather patterns, local events, holidays, calendar timing, and past purchase behavior, brands can trigger messaging that feels timely rather than promotional. A rainy weekend, a local concert, or a replenishment window can all inform what gets promoted and when. “In 2026,” Paleschuck said, “the brands that win at retail will not be the ones with the cleverest campaign. They will be the ones that turn multiple data points into offers that feel personal, contextual, and genuinely useful.”

 

Consumer Insights: Where Brands Are Winning and Falling Short

No amount of marketing will generate repeat purchases if the product fails to meet consumer expectations. But across markets, consumer feedback also shows that winning brands are delivering on quality and consistency.

To understand how legal cannabis is landing with consumers, we reviewed discussions and reviews across Reddit and Yelp in California, Colorado, and New York. While criticism is common, particularly around flower quality and potency accuracy, positive feedback reveals clear opportunities for brands that get the fundamentals right.

In California, where consumers are arguably the most discerning, experienced shoppers consistently reward brands that prioritize flavor, smoothness, and strain integrity. Craft flower brands known for terpene-forward profiles and clean smoke are frequently praised, especially by consumers who say they are willing to pay more for products that taste good and deliver quality. Edibles also perform well in the state, with gummy brands earning praise for reliable dosing, consistent onset, and pleasing flavor profiles.

Colorado consumers are more divided, particularly around flower freshness and potency labeling, but positive feedback emerges when quality expectations are met. Consumers routinely praise dispensaries and brands that offer fresh product, clear lab results, and honest potency claims. When products deliver as advertised, shoppers are quick to leave high ratings and recommend them to others.

In New York, where the legal market is still maturing, consumers are vocal about shortcomings but equally clear about what works. Edibles receive some of the strongest praise, especially when effects are consistent, and labeling feels accurate. Shoppers also respond positively to well-curated retail experiences, knowledgeable staff, and brands that feel intentional rather than rushed to market. Even as flower quality remains a common complaint, consumers note that when they find a product that hits properly, they remember the brand and actively seek it out again.

Across all three states, consumers showed they will make repeat purchases when brands deliver a fresh, crafted, quality product. While marketing, activations, and retail partnerships are essential, they only work when the product experience hits home.

 

Treating Cannabis Like A Fine Wine

By Sean Creamer
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The experience in both wine and cannabis starts with ritual: swirling, inhaling, letting heat or air coax the plant’s chemistry to life. Where wine has long relied on sommeliers to guide that moment, cannabis has spent decades without an equivalent voice to explain how cultivation, curing, and preparation shape what a consumer feels.

The emergence of the Ganjier is an attempt to fill that gap. Created by a group of cultivators, hashmakers, historians, and retailers, including figures like Kevin Jodrey, Swami Chaitanya, Nick Tanem, and Derek Gilman, the Ganjier Council is designed to professionalize cannabis evaluation and service. Think of it as the cannabis world’s version of the Court of Master Sommeliers: a certification built around sensory training, product knowledge, and the language needed to communicate quality.

Reverence for process is exactly what the Ganjier certification program aims to formalize. Kevin Jodrey, the renowned cultivator and original architect of the curriculum, describes Ganjiers as interpreters. “Ganjiers fit into the conversation as translators, somebody who clarifies language, so that when you say something to me, and I say something to someone else, it means the same thing.” It mirrors the work of sommeliers, a comparison Jodrey makes explicitly: “That’s really what sommeliers do, they translate wine into language that allows people to understand what to expect.”

As legalization accelerates and price compression pushes products toward uniformity, this shared language, the ability to turn sensory experience into common understanding, may be cannabis’s most powerful differentiator.

 

Meet the Experts Teaching the World to Taste Cannabis like Fine Wine

The modern Ganjier began as something far more personal. Jodrey recalls its earliest moment taking shape at home. “The Ganjier was invented in my kitchen. My son came up with the name, he said, ‘Dad, you’re a Ganjier, you’re a cannabis culturalist. You’re all things cannabis.’” What started as a family nickname soon resonated more widely. As legalization gained momentum, Green Flower founders Max Simon and Derek Gilman approached Jodrey with a proposal. “They came to me and said, Hey, Kev, we have an idea that we would like to create a program that highlights the nuances of cannabis in a way that allows the complex world to be brought to light so that customers, new people, consumers can see the picture in a way they haven’t.”

Shaping that clarity took work. Over several years, Jodrey and a team of eighteen practitioners debated how to define cannabis quality in a way that could stand the test of time. “It allowed the 18 of us, over the course of  7,000 hours in a multi-year period, to brawl it out and determine how to look at something in an objective manner. It was an idea of how to create cannabis connoisseurship that has a hundred-year life.”

Tanem, a California-based hashmaker and founding Ganjier Council member, remembers how the Council ultimately formed around that mission. “Derrick Gilman collected a number of us professionals that had skill sets in different areas throughout the industry, from breeding to cultivation to the law to history to extraction, you name it. The goal was to cover all bases via a program that would teach what quality is in cannabis. “People don’t really know how to assess quality, and so that’s a big part of what the Ganjier does,” said Tanem. “We really give a full background of the industry, from cultivation to law to the history to extraction to customer interaction protocols, etc.”

The path cannabis is now traveling mirrors the evolution of other connoisseur markets. Jocelyn Sheltraw, founder of The Budist, a cannabis scoring and education platform, notes that wine, beer, and coffee all matured through codification. “It’s just understanding how other connoisseur markets have evolved, and really studying the history of how consumers come to appreciate products. Whether you look at wine, beer, or coffee, they all use the same 100-point system created by Robert Parker in the late 1970s and early 1980s.” 

She emphasizes that no scoring system gains traction without guidance for interpreting it. “It took the Sherpas, it took the educators to translate that to consumers across all of those industries.” Competitions and community forums also played a role. “Competitions were a major part of drawing light on quality, and the oldest wine competition in the United States actually dates back to the 1850s.” 

Cannabis is now following the same arc, with its own judging culture, from legacy region cups to large-scale events like the upcoming MJBiz Con awards on December 2nd-5th, which bring brands, cultivators, and reviewers under one roof to evaluate products on shared terms. Cannabis connoisseurship is now entering that same phase: a shift from tradition held in pockets to a shared, teachable system of evaluation. The Ganjier is its first attempt at building a unified language.

Training and the Craft of Evaluation

If the origins of the Ganjier reflect cannabis culture’s past, the curriculum represents its future. The program is designed to function much like formal wine education, combining sensory discipline, technical learning, and service training. Students work through extensive online modules and then take part in in-person instruction led by multiple council members with different palates and professional backgrounds. 

Tanem describes the value of that diversity. “Students who come through the Ganjier program not only do two days of in-person training, but they also do anywhere from two weeks to two years of online training where they go through all of the different aspects of the industry.” Once students come out for the in-person class, there are four or five instructors or council members who provide different opinions and education. “For instance, from Swami [Chaitanya], who wants a smoother smoke and a well-cured product he calls vintage, to people like myself who have the ears to the streets,” said Tanem. “We have a lot of council members that are in retail today, in cultivation, in extraction. Having that variation in how we present what quality is, because quality can be subjective.”

A major part of that training is undoing the industry’s fixation on THC percentage. “We teach away from promoting high THC products,” Tanem says. “People want the highest THC, and we really want to educate people against that. We talk about the other volatile compounds, from sulfurs to esters to terpenes. There is a lot more to cannabis than just high THC numbers.”

The structure for this deeper analysis comes through the Systematic Assessment Protocol, or SAP, the sensory backbone of the curriculum. Jodrey explains it as a guided way to evaluate cannabis in stages. “The SAP is basically a digital scorecard with criteria that, when you touch the category, allows you to understand what this category is and how we look at it.” First up, according to Jodrey, is aroma, followed by appearance, then combustion or flavor, and then experience. The approach distinguishes between objective traits and subjective preferences. “Very volatile cannabis indicates good storage and good production,” he notes. “But a variety with low aroma might be perfect for someone who lives with their family, and the smell of pot offends them.”

Even outside the formal Ganjier curriculum, people who cultivate, process, and evaluate cannabis are running into the same limitation: combustion obscures the very subtleties the SAP is designed to measure. Former cultivator and current PAX Labs VP of Marketing Justin Tacy says this was a constant frustration long before he ever entered the device world. 

“As a cultivator, it was always frustrating to have people take what I spent years and years developing and just throw it in a bong and rip the whole gram in one go,” said Tacy. “That gives you the psychoactive effects, but it doesn’t really give you appreciation for the nuances around different terpenes and flavors.” 

Glassware and devices in cannabis are a crucial vehicle for connoisseurship. The same way wine glass design affects aroma delivery and perception, the tools used to consume cannabis can either sharpen or blunt the sensory experience. 

“It [dry air vaporization] really allows you to taste the genetics the way the cultivator intended, and pick up some of those more nuanced effects that only come from vaporizing certain terpenes versus combusting them,” Tacy noted. 

The point underscores a larger shift within cannabis connoisseurship, which is how you smoke matters. Just as glassware shapes how wine expresses its structure, the way flower is heated determines which compounds rise to the surface and which are muted or lost. That emphasis on controlled, repeatable sensory experience is exactly what the Ganjier SAP aims to formalize. 

“Wine is picking up complexity and notes and creating identification so people can understand,” Jodrey says. “We provide that, but we also provide other factors that wine does not have, which are the sustainability of aroma and penetration of aroma.” 

Behind the scenes, the Council built the curriculum piece by piece. “We broke this thing into pieces: cannabis science, law, history, retail, cultivation.” The team then went and found the people who fit into all those pieces, enabling the creation of the curriculum. “The Ganjier is a book; we all wrote a couple of chapters each in this book,” said Jodrey. “We created a common respect that was collaborative, and it was a golden time to create a language that we knew would hold up.”

That language now feeds into the broader connoisseurship ecosystem. Sheltraw describes the relationship between the Ganjier program and consumer platforms like The Budist. “Ganjier is the educational platform, equivalent of the sommelier program. Budist is the commercial platform where you apply that knowledge. Budist would then be the Wine Advocate, or Budist would be Vivino.” She emphasizes the importance of consistent judging methods. 

The SAP supplies the structure behind those evaluations. “With the SAP, there are 50 different data points. You are looking at trichome density, bud texture, and the complexity of flavors and aromas. Just to assess one flower can easily take over an hour.” And at the consumer level, the system becomes more approachable. “At Budist, we still use that same 100 point system, like all of these other major industries, but simplified for consumers. There are really four key attributes: aroma, appearance, flavor, and effect.”

Together, these elements turn the Ganjier curriculum into something much larger than a training course. It is a shared methodology, one that moves cannabis evaluation away from potency myths and toward a transparent, structured language of quality.

How Ganjiers Will Reshape Retail, Cultivation, and Brand Strategy

The rise of the Ganjier is beginning to reshape how cannabis is bought, taught, and experienced. What started as a sensory certification is now influencing every corner of the industry, from retail counters to events to tourism. 

“We are now having Bud Bars at weddings and events instead of alcohol bars, where Ganjier would be the budtender at a Bud Bar at a wedding,” Tanem said. “We are also seeing Ganjier in so many different spaces and aspects of the industry from buyers for dispensaries to QC to the head of distro, the head of sales departments, lead cultivation techs, and femmers [A femmer is someone who carries out the processes used to create feminized cannabis seeds, typically through controlled stress techniques, colloidal silver sprays, or silver thiosulfate (STS) applications that suppress male flower development.].  Tanem notes that recreational smokers and industry participants want to become Ganjiers for a whole host of reasons. 

As such, the credential has begun to create its own global community. “Every single time I go out in the field, whether I am in Hawaii or Barcelona or Berlin or Thailand, I will pull up at an event, and there are other Ganjiers there, and it is a congregation. They know each other; they can build from that,” Tanem says. These gatherings reinforce a shared standard, which then filters back into consumer education.

But even as connoisseurship gains ground, most consumers still operate via narrow decision-making looks built around potency, price, and whatever happens to be familiar. Without time or instruction at the point of sale, people default to what they know, a pattern that obscures the meaningful aspects of quality. Tacy, who spent a decade cultivating flower before joining PAX, sees this as one of the industry’s largest hurdles. 

“The market rushed to easy-to-understand numbers, high THC, weight, and maybe the color of the product, ” said Tacy. “Those are driving a lot of the industry versus what’s the value and experience you’re getting for that dollar.”

The point echoes what Ganjiers confront daily: as long as potency remains a stand-in for quality, the nuances cultivators labor to express remain out of reach for consumers. 

Jodrey frames the market context driving this need for guidance. Disposable income controls the purchase. Ninety to ninety-five percent of all purchases in cannabis are fundamentally price-driven,” he said. Education becomes the tool that helps consumers choose based on fit rather than strength or discount. Retail environments are already adjusting. “What you have to do is create a situation that lets people feel relaxed, and Ganjiers help you understand what is available in the world of cannabis so you can make better choices. That changes entire businesses,” said Jodrey. 

This vision aligns with the broader consumer landscape that Sheltraw sees emerging. “It will be very similar to what we see in wine. You are going to see your Ganjier working at cannabis retail, and as tourism evolves, you will see Ganjiers at farms educating consumers.” That presence will be omnichannel. “Wherever the consumer is, whether it is digital, social, dispensaries, or farms, we are going to see Ganjiers assisting customers.” Consumer knowledge is limited, and people are doing what they’ve done in the past; consumers are purchasing based on price point and THC level. Professional evaluation helps bridge that gap, and brands are beginning to realize that connoisseurship can also be a strategy. “Brands in cannabis recognize that this can be the impact of what we are doing to get out of this price and potency trap,” says Sheltraw. 

In a market where sameness is easy and differentiation is hard, the Ganjier offers something rare: a way to raise the value of cannabis through understanding, story, and experience.

Cheers!

The same rituals that open a glass of wine or a jar of cured flower remind us that tasting is as much interpretation as it is sensation. 

As cannabis moves from prohibition to professionalism, the Ganjier represents the shift from novelty to craft, from a scattered vocabulary to a shared one. Nick Tanem sees that future taking shape as new markets mature and consumers search for guidance on quality. Kevin Jodrey frames it even more directly. 

“The Ganjier is just really meant to create a language, fundamentally a language, that everyone speaks from store to store. So that when you say a strain does this, it translates to that somewhere else. It is language. It is understanding.” In that understanding lies the foundation of cannabis connoisseurship espoused by the Ganjier Council.

Get your Ganjier certificate here.

Hear more from Kevin Jodrey on the Inovating Cannabis Podcast.

Hear more from Nick Tanem on the Innovating Cannabis Podcast.

 

Target Just Opened the Door — Is Your Brand Compliance-Ready for Mass Retailers?

By Pam Chmiel
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Will Target’s move to sell THC drinks be the catalyst the industry needs to push for higher standards?

Target’s decision to start selling hemp-derived THC beverages marks a major milestone for the cannabis industry and a reality check for brands hoping to follow. Selling into mass retail is not just about scaling production or packaging appeal. It requires proving that your product meets the same safety and manufacturing standards as food, pharma, and cosmetics.

As Darwin Millard, Technical Director at CSQ Certification, explains, “Retailers like Walmart and Target protect their liability by only buying from GMP-certified producers. That certification is their shield.” Without an accredited Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification, cannabis brands may not make it past the first round of vendor qualification.

The cannabis industry has traditionally operated in a silo, selling B2B to other licensed operators that rarely demand third-party certifications. Mass retailers operate differently. They rely on accredited certification programs to verify every layer of the supply chain, from ingredient sourcing to packaging. This mitigates risk and ensures traceability if something goes wrong.

Many hemp brands rely on co-manufacturers already bottling for alcohol and alternative beverage industries, but those manufacturers are often not GMP-certified for cannabis products. Existing food safety schemes, such as SQF or BRC, do not yet recognize cannabinoids as approved ingredients. Target may have overlooked this gap when approving its current selection of hemp beverages, but this is likely to be addressed going forward.

Target’s move could push the entire cannabis supply chain to adopt GMPs to protect consumers and ensure consistent quality. As Millard warns, “It could be the thing that gives our industry its biggest black eye if something goes wrong, or the moment that raises the bar for safety and quality once and for all.”

 

What It Takes To Get GMP Certified

GMP certification is a rigorous, multi-step process that demonstrates a company’s commitment to verified quality and safety standards. While companies may perform internal audits or have business partners review their processes, the most widely recognized and trusted method is third-party certification.

Third-party certification involves an independent organization auditing every aspect of your operation to ensure compliance with established GMP requirements. This provides a clear, objective verification that processes, documentation, and product handling meet global standards.

Not all third-party certifications carry the same weight. Accredited certifications are independently verified by an external authority and recognized internationally as meeting stringent standards for quality and safety. Unaccredited certifications, in contrast, may offer internal assurance but generally do not hold the same credibility with regulators, retailers, or international partners.

For brands targeting mass retail or global trade, third-party certification serves as proof that safety, traceability, and quality standards are adhered to.

 

What Compliance Looks Like

Not only does the cannabis industry need to embrace standards for scaling to mass retail, but it also needs to embrace standards for global trade. That includes accredited GMP certification rather than a certificate from an unverified auditor.

Cultivation falls under Current Good Agricultural Practices (GACP), ensuring that every stage of plant growth and harvest meets rigorous safety and quality benchmarks.

Effective cultivation standards cover both indoor and outdoor grow environments and include strict protocols for:

  • Water quality and irrigation management
  • Equipment sanitation and maintenance
  • Crop protection and propagation materials (including clones, seeds, and tissue culture)
  • Temperature and atmospheric control during drying and curing

Once plants are harvested, the process transitions from GACP to GMP standards, marking the shift from cultivation to manufacturing. “Harvest is the hard line,” says Millard. “Once you start to process the plant in a controlled environment by trimming, curing, or packaging, you’re operating under GMP.”

The CSQ Cultivation program also covers flower handling, grinding, and pre-roll production, but stops short of infused or extracted products. When it comes to post-harvest remediation techniques like irradiation, CSQ doesn’t explicitly prohibit them but requires detailed, documented procedures.

“We treat drying and curing like refrigerated or frozen food storage,” Millard explains. “There are specific temperature and environmental conditions that must be maintained to preserve product safety and quality.”

In the extraction process, standards define best practices for processing and handling cannabinoid materials. Standards cover everything from raw extracts, such as live resin or rosin, to refined materials, including distillate or purified cannabinoids. They also include formulation, risk assessment, and allergen implications for products intended for inhalation, ingestion, or topical use.

 

The Last Mile: Warehousing and Distribution

Once cannabis products leave the manufacturing facility, maintaining safety and quality becomes the responsibility of distributors and warehouse operators. Mass retailers will expect vendors to follow the same high standards throughout storage and transit as they do during production.

Controlled storage environments are a requirement for ensuring product preservation. Temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions must be monitored and documented to preserve volatile compounds in concentrates, infused products, and THC beverages, similar to perishable food or beverage items.

Proper warehousing protocols also protect against contamination, degradation, and liability. Companies that can prove systems for handling, tracking, and storing products across the supply chain will have a competitive advantage with mass retailers.

 

Retail Responsibility: Preserving Quality and Mitigating Liability

Once cannabis products reach the retail shelf, the responsibility for maintaining safety and quality shifts to the retailer. Like perishable foods, cannabis products can degrade if not stored under proper temperature, humidity, or lighting conditions. For high-end concentrates or infused products, even minor lapses in any of these factors can significantly impact potency, consistency, and the overall consumer experience.

If products degrade, retailers could face legal liability or incur costly recalls. In some cases, manufacturers may prove that products left the facility compliant with Certificate of Analysis (COA) standards, but without proper storage at the retail level, those standards cannot be maintained.

Standardized operating procedures (SOPs) for storage, handling, and temperature monitoring remove liability from the retailer and make sure consumers receive the quality product they are promised. Batch records, documented storage conditions, and adherence to best practices allow them to demonstrate that they took all reasonable steps to maintain product integrity.

High-end extractors and other manufacturers often worry that retail infrastructure is not yet equipped to handle sensitive products. Improper storage can result in financial losses and reputational damage. Embracing certifications and best practices will become increasingly essential as the industry matures and customers demand higher quality.

Consumers expect cannabis products to be safe, consistent, and accurately labeled. Maintaining quality throughout the supply chain ensures that products match what is promised. Otherwise, what reaches the shelf may be nothing more than THC content with degraded flavor, aroma, or texture, far from the intended experience.

 

Raising the Bar For Cannabis Quality

Target’s entry into hemp-infused beverages marks a turning point for the cannabis industry. Success in mass retail requires rigorous quality standards, including GMP and GACP practices, temperature-controlled storage, and documented SOPs, to protect consumers and retailers while preserving product quality. These practices position brands for mass retail and prepare the industry for international trade, where standards are even more stringent.

Dive deeper into standards with Darwin Millard on the Innovating Cannabis Podcast.

Can NY’s Legal Stores Compete with an Eight-Billion-Dollar Illicit Market?

By Pam Chmiel
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The recent Business of Cannabis Summit in New York City brought together industry professionals at the trendy Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for a day focused on tackling the cannabis industry’s toughest challenges: price compression, retail survival, and the slow but steady shift from legacy to legal markets. The conversations offered a candid look at what it takes to survive and thrive as New York’s regulated cannabis industry matures. Many speakers agreed that while consumer demand is there, the framework that supports retailers is still developing, creating a volatile environment.

Joanne Wilson, owner and CEO of Gotham Dispensaries, offered a candid take on the current retail climate, warning that now is not the time to buy when asked about future expansion plans. “The market’s going to fall,” she said, predicting that many New York dispensary owners, especially small operators who invested personal and family funds, will face financial hardship as taxes and operating costs outpace returns. “It’s really… the whole thing is just a shambles,” Wilson added. Many panelists throughout the day were blunt about their dissatisfaction with the Office of Cannabis Management’s rollout of the New York market. Several attendees said they remain hopeful, but stressed the need for more consistent enforcement and clearer rules of engagement for retailers and brands.

David Vautrin, CEO of Fluent, echoed her caution, advising new entrants to start small. “Go for a smaller space,” he said. “A lot of folks went big in the beginning, and the overhead is enormous. Your costs are only going up while your margins are going down. The tax situation is grim.” With sales volume softening and price compression tightening profits, Vautrin said retailers must operate lean and avoid getting “too far over your skis.”

Vautrin points to being brand-centric. “Because we’re restricted to three adult-use stores, our biggest opportunity has really been in wholesale,” he said. “Our wholesale business is growing very rapidly, and we’re servicing a few hundred customers already.”

From a retail perspective, Vautrin said success stresses the importance of having the right SKU selection to build sticky customer relationships. There is a dizzying number of strains available. “Retailers need to have a great menu, a good variety, and a very well-educated team in order to sell these products and help move people up the value chain,” he said. His team partners with SeedTalent to train budtenders so they can serve as informed guides for consumers, ideally emphasizing terpene profiles and product effects, not just high THC numbers.

 

Has the Market Reached Its Limit?

“I think we’re there,” said Wilson. “And what’s equilibrium anyway? In ten years, maybe, but five years from now you’ll see a lot of large brands—maybe Gotham will be one of them.” She went on to explain her vision for a balanced ecosystem similar to other mature retail sectors. “There will always be large department-store-style dispensaries, but you’ll also have smaller neighborhood shops, like the local wine or nail salons, where you know the owner and just need something quick. That’s where we’ll end up in terms of balance.”

Wilson said the illicit market remains a major issue. “Every cop in New York City knows where these underground places are, and they have to be stopped, because that’s business they’re taking away from us,” she said. “If you’re going to grow a business, then give us the tools to grow a business. If they did this in the tech industry, you wouldn’t have the big tech companies you have today. They would have all walked away.”

Vautrin countered that true equilibrium is still a long way off. “We’re far from that stage,” he said. “We haven’t even captured a material chunk of the illicit market yet. In the long run, it’s going to be a branding game—brands that can build authentic relationships with customers will end up winning.” He pointed out that “gummy consumers tend to be the most loyal because they want to repeat that experience, while flower consumers tend to be the least loyal because of the variability,” suggesting that future growth will depend on how brands educate and build brand awareness.

 

Bridging Legacy and Legal Markets

Vladamir Batista, co-owner of Happy Munkey dispensaries, offered a more optimistic take, praising the OCM for creating “bridges instead of moats” that allow legacy operators like himself to enter the legal market. “New York has created a program where somebody who was in the illicit market can create a brand, open their own dispensary, and come to the legal market,” Batista said. “I’ve already seen that happening with people I know, and it’s going to continue.”

New York’s legal market has generated around $2 billion in revenue so far this year, and many at the summit predicted the illicit market could be $4 billion. Batista thinks it’s far higher than official estimates and is worth $8 to $10 billion. “New York City is the highest-consuming cannabis city in the world,” he said. “I keep my ear to the ground, the legacy market is definitely shrinking—it’s not as conducive as it once was because price compression in the legal market also drives down prices in the illicit market.”

He believes that as more legacy creativity and customer loyalty migrate to the regulated space, the industry will strengthen rapidly. “As more of that creativity crosses over to the legal market, more consumer emails and databases will get converted to the legal market. It’s going to get really robust, really fast,” Batista said.

Despite acknowledging challenges, he credited the state for giving social equity entrepreneurs a chance to participate. “Without programs like this, you’d lose the battle against the legacy market every time,” he said. “At the end of the day, they’ve been around for 80 years. You’re not going to overtake them—you can only embrace them and help them cross over.”

An MSO’s Perspective on the New York Market

By Pam Chmiel
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At the recent Business of Cannabis event in New York, Robert Sciarrone, Chief Revenue Officer at Curaleaf, shared an MSO’s insider view on why he believes New York is poised to become the best cannabis market on the planet.

Sciarrone began by reflecting on his early years as a cannabis-focused venture capitalist. Through his firm, Measure 8 Partners, he has deployed more than $550 million across 20-plus cannabis companies globally, including dispensaries, delivery services, and technology platforms, with investments spanning California, Arizona, Nevada, Canada, and Europe.

After joining Curaleaf two and a half years ago, recruited by Executive Chairman Boris Jordan, Sciarrone transitioned from investor to operator, now overseeing revenue across 18 states in both retail and wholesale. He admitted the operational grind has given him a new respect for the business side of cannabis, but emphasized that passion for the plant and its customers remains the heart of the industry.

Looking back on the “freewheeling” investment era of 2019, when $100 million deals were being done daily, Sciarrone contrasted that speculative period with today’s market. “California’s day is over,” he declared, suggesting that the West Coast market’s oversaturation and regulatory struggles have created space for New York to lead. With its cultural influence, economic strength, and growing consumer sophistication, Sciarrone believes New York can set the standard for how cannabis culture and business shape the global industry.

As a born-and-raised New Yorker, Sciarrone expressed deep pride in being part of that evolution: “It’s my passion to be here and watch this market unfold.”

 

Curaleaf’s Early Bet on New York

Sciarrone highlighted Curaleaf’s early commitment to the New York medical market. The company was among the first Registered Organizations (ROs) to invest heavily in infrastructure, opening four medical dispensaries and building a state-of-the-art cultivation facility in Ravena, just south of Albany, in 2018. “It’s one of the nicest cultivation centers I’ve seen,“ he said, noting that Curaleaf “believed in New York early.”

However, as the state prepared to transition to adult-use, Sciarrone recalled a divide that formed between corporate medical operators and new entrants under the CAURD program. “The market was divided, and it never should have been,“ he said. Fragmentation, he argued, weakened the industry’s collective voice at a time when it needed to work together to navigate taxes, regulations, and constant policy changes.

Today, Sciarrone sees signs of progress. “The market is starting to slowly come together,“ he said, adding that Curaleaf’s approach in New York is focused on wholesale partnerships with other retailers.

He also acknowledged that Curaleaf had to earn back credibility on product quality. “When I came in, Curaleaf didn’t have a lot. People probably remember that our product quality was lacking,“ he admitted. Like many MSOs in the early days, Curaleaf had relied on scale and storefronts to drive sales. But as the market matured, so did the company’s mindset. “We’ve had to think critically about our brands, about what we’re putting in the jar—the genetics, the nose, the story,“ Sciarrone said.

 

“We’ve had a complete 180 in Curaleaf’s journey, and it started with our efforts in New York.”

 

As operators unite around shared goals of keeping stores open, expanding access, and stabilizing supply, Sciarrone said New York’s cannabis industry is beginning to find its footing. He believes collaboration between the different groups has made it one of the fastest-growing and healthiest markets in the country.

 

“If we stay the path,” he concluded, “New York will be the biggest cannabis economy in the United States.”

 

The Potential of New York Brands

Sciarrone also shared his perspective on the potential of New York cannabis brands. He noted that while West Coast brands were once expected to dominate, consumer preferences differ by region. New Yorkers are proud of their local products, and homegrown brands have a strong story that resonates with consumers, budtenders, and store owners.

 

“California brands have cachet, but we have our own stories to tell in New York,“ he said.

 

While the consistency and quality of California brands give them an advantage in some markets, Sciarrone believes that as New York cultivators and operators collaborate, local brands will thrive. He highlighted that formulated products, such as edibles and beverages, may be one area where California brands see success, but in flower, New York brands have the edge.

 

“The more that cultivators open up their doors for brand partnerships, the more opportunity there is for some really great brands to merge, and we will see true New York brands make a run at it,“ he said.

 

Track and Trace, the Illicit Market, and the Path Forward

Sciarrone also addressed the upcoming New York track-and-trace system, expected to be implemented in early 2026. He sees it as a crucial step for a fair and regulated market. “Anybody operating in New York or any regulated market should be operating with a license,“ he said. Without track and trace, unlicensed operators have easy access to the market, avoiding taxes and regulations, which undermines legitimate businesses.

The system, he explained, will provide relief to licensed operators, including microbusinesses, microprocessors, and outdoor farms, by helping them move products more efficiently and transparently. It will also give consumers confidence in the origin and safety of the cannabis they purchase. While he acknowledges that some will try to work around the system, he emphasized that track and trace is a necessary step toward maintaining a healthy, fair, and thriving market.

 

“Listen, it’s a step in the right direction,“ he said. “It will help us keep a really great economy going and prevent giving people a free swing in the market.”

 

Price Compression and Market Equilibrium

On the topic of pricing, Sciarrone noted that predicting supply and demand in New York is challenging. The market is growing rapidly, but price compression is a reality in a sector where cannabis prices are not regulated. “Price is going to come down,“ he said, and any market that expects stable high prices has never existed because supply, investment, and competition constantly influence it.

He emphasized the importance of building confidence among local operators. Micro and outdoor farms in New York are producing good-quality products. As the local supply base stabilizes without too much out-of-state competition, operators may feel more comfortable investing in cultivation and expanding capacity. “We’re hopeful that people will see it as investable,“ he said. Curaleaf itself continues to invest carefully, weighing expansion decisions against market uncertainty. Stabilization of supply, he believes, will ultimately support a healthier, long-term market.

The Hemp Equation

Sciarrone also addressed the emerging hemp space, where Curaleaf has begun experimenting with beverages and a small retail presence in Florida. While he does not oversee the hemp business directly, he emphasized its significance and complexity. The hemp market has reached $30 billion in value, growing faster than the regulated cannabis channel. It is widely available in convenience stores and major retailers, which means it is attracting new consumers who might otherwise enter the regulated market.

 

“The hemp channel is stealing our new customers,“ Sciarrone said.

 

Many consumers who are trying cannabis for the first time are turning to hemp beverages and edibles instead of licensed dispensaries. Large investments and strong lobbying by farmers have accelerated this growth, creating a reality that cannot simply be legislated away.

Sciarrone believes that the regulated and hemp industries will eventually converge, whether through national or state-level licensing. Curaleaf’s strategy is to understand the hemp market while protecting the regulated channel, where its distribution assets and customer relationships reside. “We will fight to make sure we protect the regulated channel,“ he said, noting that brand work and product development, particularly in beverages, are ongoing priorities to maintain market share.

The State Of New York’s Cannabis Industry 2025

By Pam Chmiel
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Jason Ambrosino, a disabled Army veteran and founder of Veterans Holdings, entered the New York market in 2019 under the state’s hemp program with the goal of cultivating and manufacturing cannabis. But despite holding a 5,000-square-foot indoor cultivation license, he decided not to build out his facility. The reason, he says, is simple: “The registered organizations (ROs) in New York State own the flower industry. They own it. You’re not going to break in.”

Ambrosino explained that the state’s vertically integrated ROs, many of which started as medical operators, dominate the adult-use flower market with massive 100,000-square-foot indoor canopies and the ability to negotiate favorable energy rates. “The number one driver of indoor flower price anywhere is electricity cost,” he said. “Where I am in New York State, it’s 23 cents a kilowatt hour. The ROs can negotiate directly for 7, 8, or 9 cents per kilowatt-hour because of their size. There will never be a day when I can operate in the market alongside them, because it costs me twice as much to grow as it does them.” He said that disparity makes small-scale cultivation unviable for most new entrants.

Ambrosino estimates that it could cost him roughly $600 per pound to grow cannabis, while the ROs can do it for about half that. “You don’t really think about it until you end up paying for a license, only to find out the utility prices are so high that you can’t make it work,” he said.

He believes the state’s adult-use rollout created an illusion of opportunity for small hemp farmers and microbusinesses. “They used the illusion of inclusion to gain public support,” he said. “They built protections that were meant to keep ROs out for three years to create a level playing field, but these protections were stripped away after enough lobbying dollars were spent.”

According to Ambrosino, large operators pressured lawmakers by withholding financial commitments to social equity programs until they received favorable terms. “They held them hostage,” he said. “They told lawmakers, ‘We’re not going to pay you any of that money until you give us a more favorable law.’ So, they changed it.”

The result, he says, is a market where ROs hold most of the canopy, while smaller cultivators face high costs, limited access, and few realistic paths to profitability. “Right now, microbusinesses are structured for failure,” Ambrosino said. “They’re trying to sell flower at $60 when dispensaries can get indoor-grown product from ROs for $30 or $35. You can’t compete with that.”

Mismatched Policy, Manipulated Data, and a Market Set to Run Dry

Ambrosino says the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) has failed to recognize the growing imbalance between large registered organizations and small cultivators. “The data OCM puts out is very manipulated and questionable,” he said. “They conflict with what they report from one day to the next. One day, there’s not enough canopy, the next day, there’s too much. It’s all over the place. They’ll show you all the potential canopy of adult-use license holders, but the reality is 80% of them aren’t growing, or they’re only using part of their allotted space. Meanwhile, the ROs are operating at a massive scale.”

He believes this disconnect has led policymakers to think there’s an oversupply problem when in reality there’s a shortage of affordable biomass. “OCM looks at flower canopy, not biomass canopy,” Ambrosino said. “We don’t have enough biomass to produce distillate, and distillate is what sets the price for everything.”

Ambrosino, who sits on the board of the Association of New York Cannabis Processors, says the solution starts with expanding outdoor cultivation. “We’ve been lobbying the state to raise the outdoor cap from one acre to five,” he explained. “They keep saying there’s enough canopy, but that’s not true if you want a functioning processing and manufacturing sector.”

He also believes OCM steered small farmers in the wrong direction. “They convinced these guys to grow indoors when they had no capital to begin with,” he said. “Outdoor grows are cheaper, more sustainable, and can produce terpene-rich material that’s perfect for extraction. Giving up those outdoor licenses was the worst thing they could have done.”

Ambrosino sees the industry’s structural problems fueling a deeper issue: product inversion. “Inversion is like a cancer tumor,” he said. “Everyone — dispensaries, processors, cultivators — is supporting it. If OCM just cuts it out overnight, the market will bleed to death. We have to shrink the tumor first. The only way to do that is to expand cultivation enough that it doesn’t make sense to invert.”

Licensing Gridlock and Market Whiplash

Dispensary operators say New York’s market isn’t just constrained by bureaucracy, it’s tangled in its own rules. Jon Paul Pezzo, owner of NYC Bud dispensary, believes the state’s proximity restrictions have unintentionally frozen the licensing process. “You have a lot of people that are holding proximities because they’re in the December queue or they just have a proximity,” he explained. “Some may have abandoned their license or run out of money, but those spots are still locked up. That means someone with an actual license can’t move forward.” Pezzo said that while rolling out the market slowly may have helped at first, the process has caused problems on all sides.

Now that the agency is considering waiving its 1,000-foot proximity rule to allow more dispensaries to open, Pezzo worries it’s too soon for such sweeping changes. “The industry isn’t even five years old,” he said. “Let it play out before you start rewriting the rules. If we had known these laws would change this quickly, maybe we would have invested differently.”

He added that while OCM claims to solicit feedback from operators, the process feels one-sided. “I’ve been to many OCM meetings where everyone’s frustrated, and the regulators just sit there getting yelled at,” he said. “At some point, they just shut down. I don’t think they’re really listening to logic.”

The Data Gap: METRC, Testing, and a Lack of Standards

Ambrosino believes New York’s lack of standardized testing and tracking has left the industry vulnerable to chaos. “If you want a juicy nugget, I’ll tell you where to look,” he said. “It’s in the testing, and it’s in the labs. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find that all of our labs are invalid because they were supposed to be updated by Wadsworth Labs, the state police lab that never got the equipment. Because of that, every lab is operating under its own standard. There’s no standardization between labs, and nobody knows.”

That lack of consistency, he warns, could have far-reaching financial consequences. When potency-based taxes were imposed, each lab’s different results meant the state effectively collected taxes on unverified data. “Don’t be surprised if people start demanding money back for what they overpaid in potency taxes,” Ambrosino said.

A long-promised track-and-trace system could have helped prevent some of this disarray, but the rollout has been repeatedly delayed. After three years, the agency now says METRC will finally be implemented in January.

Jon Paul Pezzo says the delay has left retailers struggling with manual systems that are prone to human error. “In a perfect world, this should work like a supermarket—product comes in, product goes out, and it’s all scanned into one universal system,” he explained. “Instead, we’re manually entering everything, and that leads to mislabeled products and bad data. For something that’s a controlled substance, that’s unacceptable.”

He believes a fully integrated METRC system could finally bring order to the process. “You’d have cultivators logging shipments, dispensaries scanning them in, and all the details automatically syncing,” Pezzo said. “It would make everyone’s life easier and protect the business as a whole. I just don’t understand why it’s taken this long.”

The Hemp Loophole is Undermining New York’s Legal Market

“The entire industry is using the hemp loophole,” Ambrosino said, describing a troubling double standard: OCM forced him to remove hemp-derived products from his website even though the regulations permitted out-of-state sales for products under the .3% threshold, while companies like Sluggers continue to sell high-potency “THCA hemp” products directly to New Yorkers online.

“This stuff they’re calling hemp, it’s not hemp, it’s marijuana,” he said. “We have to be smarter. It’s deceptive, and it’s hurting the legal operators who are trying to play by the rules.”

Ambrosino says that without proper lab oversight and product tracking, hemp-derived cannabinoids like THCA are slipping through regulatory cracks, further undermining the licensed market.

Cannabusiness Sustainability

Why Franchises Could Be the Golden Ticket for Social Equity Entrepreneurs

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The cannabis industry is a fertile ground for aspiring entrepreneurs, holding the promise of a modern-day gold rush. Yet beneath the surface of opportunity lies a minefield of obstacles. Success requires navigating a steep learning curve, managing high operational costs, and mastering a complex supply chain that spans cultivation, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, finance, and strict regulatory compliance.

As of today, 40 states have legalized medical marijuana, and 24 states have legalized adult-use. Many of these states have prioritized giving Black and Brown communities, disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs, the chance to participate as dispensary owners. They’ve introduced social equity licensing programs, grants, and funding opportunities designed to level the playing field. Unfortunately, despite the good intentions, no state has yet launched a truly successful social equity program. New York’s rollout, in particular, has been marred by delays, lawsuits, and a lack of adequate support for license holders.

Despite the focus on prioritizing social equity entrepreneurs, the issues of inexperience, undercapitalization, and limited access to resources still need to be solved. These weaknesses create a high risk of business failure, making venture capital firms hesitant to invest in such ventures. A potential solution lies in franchising—a model that can provide a blueprint for success and the operational support to reduce failure rates, while also making cannabis investments more attractive to institutional and private investors.

 

The Benefits of a Retail Operational Blueprint

A cannabis franchise offers entrepreneurs an accelerated path to market by providing turnkey support. A franchisor supplies comprehensive resources, including:

  • Retail site selection and lease negotiations
  • Store design and build-out assistance
  • Initial and ongoing training programs for staff and management
  • Standardized operating procedures (SOPs) and compliance frameworks
  • Technology stacks (POS, e-commerce integration, track-and-trace systems)
  • Marketing and branding support rooted in consumer research
  • Vendor and supply chain relationships to ensure consistent, quality product flow

For new operators, this guidance eliminates many common pitfalls and shortens the learning curve. Franchisees step into a proven system, benefiting from brand recognition, operational discipline, and shared best practices.

 

Why Cannabis Franchises Make Sense

Cannabis retail faces unique challenges compared to traditional industries. Franchising can help overcome them:

1. The Unique Shopping Experience                              For first-time consumers, visiting a dispensary can feel intimidating. From security check-ins to navigating hundreds of unfamiliar products with the guidance of budtenders, the process can be overwhelming for new customers. A franchise ensures a consistent retail experience by training staff to educate and guide consumers, fostering customer loyalty, and building trust in the brand.

2. Adapting to Rapid Product Evolution                                                                          The cannabis product landscape changes faster than most consumer categories. Cultivators constantly rotate new strains into the market, novel cannabinoids (like THCV and CBG) are gaining traction, and new delivery systems, from solventless concentrates to nanoemulsion THC beverages, continue to emerge. A single dispensary may struggle to keep up with these trends, but a franchise leverages data from multiple locations to predict consumer demand and optimize inventory.

3. Navigating the Dispensary Technology Stack                                                  Dispensaries operate within a specialized tech ecosystem, featuring seed-to-sale tracking, compliance reporting, CRM systems, digital menus, and marketing platforms that must comply with advertising restrictions. Choosing the wrong software can be costly and disruptive. Franchises streamline this by standardizing their tech stack across locations, saving franchisees the trial-and-error process.

4. Meeting High-Security Requirements                                                                  Cannabis retailers must operate like high-security facilities. State-mandated vaults for product storage, video surveillance systems, onsite security guards, and cash-only operations (due to limited access to banking) make security both costly and complicated. Franchises reduce risk by providing tried-and-true protocols for safeguarding cash and inventory.

5. Ensuring Compliance in a Highly Regulated Industry                                  Compliance violations are among the fastest ways to lose a license. Cannabis retailers must adhere to strict regulations regarding packaging, labeling, advertising, delivery, consumption lounges, and track-and-trace systems. Non-compliance can result in severe fines or a permanent shutdown. By joining a franchise, operators gain access to dedicated legal and compliance teams who track evolving laws across multiple jurisdictions. This lowers the cost of legal services and dramatically reduces regulatory risk.

 

Easing the Path to Capital

Access to capital remains one of the biggest hurdles in cannabis. Traditional bank loans are rare, and investors are cautious due to the sector’s volatility. A franchise model eases this barrier by offering:

  • Proven systems and financial performance data that reduce investor risk.
  • Scalable retail expansion opportunities that appeal to venture firms and private equity.
  • Institutional credibility through established brands makes lenders more comfortable underwriting loans.

 

Challenges for Cannabis Franchisors

While franchising offers clear advantages for operators, it’s not without challenges. Only a handful of cannabis franchisors exist today, and some early attempts have failed due to the complexities of operating across multiple states, each with its own licensing rules, ownership caps, and compliance hurdles.

Two companies leading the charge are Sweet Spot Farms and Curio Wellness’ Far & Dotter, each approaching the franchise model in distinct ways.

  • Sweet Spot Farms has taken a cannabis-first approach, focusing exclusively on dispensary retail. With franchisees already operating in four states and more expansion underway, the company emphasizes a consistent retail experience, standardized operating procedures, and brand trust built directly around cannabis. Their success demonstrates that a disciplined, tightly controlled model can scale even in fragmented markets.
  • Far & Dotter, developed by Maryland-based MSO Curio Wellness, takes a broader health-and-wellness approach. In addition to cannabis retail, the franchise concept incorporates holistic services such as massage therapy, acupuncture, and natural health products. This wellness-forward positioning aims to destigmatize cannabis, attract new customer demographics, and differentiate Far & Dotter from dispensaries that focus strictly on THC sales.
  • Buds Place has yet to open its consumption lounge model, but is eyeing Michigan as its first state because of its more favorable cannabis laws compared to other states. Ron Silberstein, CFO, has been in the franchise industry since 1999 and believes the cannabis industry is the next great frontier for franchising opportunities.

The existence of these two models highlights both the opportunities and the complexities of franchising in the cannabis industry. Sweet Spot Farms shows how a cannabis-focused franchise can scale through disciplined operations, while Far & Dotter demonstrates how expanding the consumer experience beyond cannabis can open doors to new markets and investors. Both face the challenge of adapting their systems to varied state regulations while keeping brand consistency across locations.

Unlocking Potential Through Franchising

The cannabis industry is brimming with opportunity, but breaking in and building a sustainable business remains a daunting task. Franchising provides a proven roadmap that mitigates risk, accelerates growth, and increases access to capital. By offering operational blueprints, established brand trust, compliance expertise, and consumer insights, cannabis franchises create a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs.

Just as importantly, franchising can help advance social equity goals. By providing new entrepreneurs, especially those disproportionately affected by prohibition, a structured, proven path to success, franchising can democratize opportunities while attracting the investor capital the industry desperately needs.

If cannabis is the modern-day gold rush, franchising may well be the map that ensures more entrepreneurs strike success.

Blockchain-Powered Cannabis CTV Unlocks Advertising Opportunities

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The next evolution of marketing in the cannabis industry has arrived.

Global Compliance Application Corp. (GCAC), a publicly traded Canadian company specializing in blockchain technology, has launched Citizen Green, a connected TV (CTV) channel designed to educate viewers on various aspects of the cannabis industry. The content will cover a broad range of topics, including cannabis health and wellness, business insights, hemp, and psychedelics.

Available worldwide, Citizen Green’s programming extends beyond North America, featuring international content, such as an Australian show that focuses on building homes with industrial hemp. This global reach positions the channel as an ideal platform for advertisers seeking to establish and expand their international cannabis brands.

As consumers increasingly cut the cord on traditional cable, smart TVs are gaining traction, particularly among the 50+ demographic — an untapped, canna-curious audience. According to Statista, 40 percent of Americans stream TV content, while traditional cable and broadcast TV each account for around 20 percent.

Building the Citizen Green CTV Channel with Strategic Content Partnerships

Citizen Green’s President, Steve Peterson, is spearheading the strategy for the new CTV channel, focusing on shows with built-in audiences — after all, we live in an influencer-driven world. A key component of this strategy was GCAC’s acquisition of Weed and Whiskey, a Dallas-based CTV Roku channel. This acquisition laid the foundation for what would become Citizen Green, rebranded to appeal to a broader, health-and-wellness-focused audience beyond the niche of cannabis culture. The channel is now available on multiple platforms, including Apple, Android, Fire TV, and Android TV.

Citizen Green’s lineup also includes Grunt Style, a San Antonio-based military-themed T-shirt company founded by veterans, known for their patriotic slogans. The Grunt Style Foundation creates content with a strong following in the military community, anchoring Citizen Green’s veteran-focused messaging.

Cannabis Coast to Coast News, a popular cannabis news show anchored by former sports broadcaster Jimmy Young, boasts over a million views and is also an “anchor tenant” in Peterson’s strategy, which he likens to filling a shopping mall. “To attract vibrant tenants, I needed strong key tenants, like the Macys and Nordstroms in a mall,” Peterson explains. “There’s a lot of cannabis content out there that doesn’t have the following it deserves, and now I’m filling out the stores in the mall with a variety of content — from music and movies to podcasts, entertainment, and education — creating revenue opportunities along the way.”

Peterson is confident that Citizen Green will be a powerful brand-building and revenue-generating platform for content providers through advertising and e-commerce initiatives.

Cannabis Advertising on CTV

Cannabis brands face significant advertising restrictions on traditional TV due to regulations imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which governs radio, satellite, and cable communications. Because cannabis remains federally illegal, the FCC restricts its advertising. However, connected TV (CTV) operates under different rules. Unlike conventional broadcast television, the FCC has limited authority over internet-delivered or streaming content, providing a new opportunity for cannabis marketers.

“We’ve established clear guardrails to ensure compliance and avoid any issues,” explains Peterson. “Transparency is key — we want to make sure there are no false or misleading statements.”

Leveraging Ethereum Blockchain for Enhanced CTV Advertising

According to Advertising Week, the future of CTV advertising is filled with opportunities, especially with AI and blockchain driving advancements in targeting, fraud prevention, and contextual relevance. As a blockchain company, Citizen Green is poised to take CTV advertising to the next level by making it more interactive while ensuring transparency and compliance within the cannabis industry.

Through blockchain technology, Citizen Green provides real-time engagement between consumers and advertisers using smart contract mechanisms. Viewers can scan QR codes on their TV screens to access exclusive deals, a product’s Certificate of Authority (COA) to verify lab testing, or landing pages for brand stories. CTV’s video-on-demand feature enables viewers to pause and engage with a brand they find interesting, making it a powerful tool for brand building. Once a coupon is downloaded into the viewer’s e-wallet, advertisers can retarget that customer, much like email marketing. The only information advertisers receive is the e-wallet ID, keeping the transaction anonymous except for details on how and where the coupon was redeemed.

Additionally, Citizen Green allows viewers to shop directly through the platform by hovering over images with their remote, bringing up a shopping cart for immediate purchase. Brands can also use on-demand printing services to sell branded merchandise, adding further value to their CTV advertising efforts.

Advertising Opportunities on Citizen Green CTV

Citizen Green offers a range of advertising opportunities beyond its regular programming, including a pay-per-view model for live-streaming events such as concerts, educational seminars, and lectures. This provides advertisers with multiple channels to promote their brands. The platform will also feature a mobile app for easy access to cannabis content.

Unlike traditional linear TV, CTV operates as a digital platform, utilizing first- and third-party data to target audiences wherever they stream. This means advertisers can reach specific viewer segments and retarget consumers with tailored CTV campaigns. Like other digital advertising platforms, performance can be tracked through tools like Google Analytics, enabling brands to measure customer journeys and return on investment (ROI). Its interactive features make Citizen Green a robust demand and lead-generation tool.

“Integrating blockchain-driven ads into streaming video content, where allowed, and delivering them to a targeted, scalable market is the next evolution of advertising and revenue generation in the cannabis industry,” says GCAC North America President Steve Peterson. Streaming TV provides advertisers with access to a broad demographic, making it a prime platform for those seeking to stand out in the competitive cannabis market.

Hear Steve Peterson’s full interview on the Innovating Cannabis Podcast featured on Citizen Green TV.

NECANN Atlantic City: Insights on NJ’s Emerging Market

By Pam Chmiel
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The excitement and interest around New Jersey are impossible to ignore because of its potential to be one of the most lucrative cannabis markets in the country. Since legalization, operators have been racing to open doors, capture consumers, and keep pace with evolving regulations, as they battle sky-high operating costs, shifting compliance rules, and the uncertainty of how consumer demand will shake out.

At NECANN’s Atlantic City conference, a panel of industry insiders gathered to offer their insights on where the Garden State’s market is heading. Moderated by Jacob Robbins of Longview Strategic, the panel brought together voices from the packaging, brewing, and manufacturing industries to explore the opportunities, roadblocks, and trends reshaping the industry.

“This market is young and growing fast,” Robbins said as he opened the session. “But it’s also unpredictable. Success requires both planning and adaptability.”

Lesson From Other States: Scaling Smart                                                                                    Jason Marshall of AE Global, a company specializing in packaging and supply chain solutions, began by pointing to lessons from more mature cannabis markets. Drawing on his background in consumer packaged goods (CPG) with companies like Pepsi and General Mills, Marshall stressed that packaging in cannabis is far more than just compliance.

“Packaging is the vehicle for trust and brand identity,” he said. “In a crowded dispensary, that’s how you stand out.”

The data shows just how crowded New Jersey has become. In 2023, the state tracked 2,100 SKUs; this year, that number more than doubled to 4,800. For consumers, that means unprecedented choice. For businesses, it means competing for shelf space and consumer attention in ways that look increasingly like mainstream retail.

Marshall’s advice was clear: treat cannabis like any other consumer market. Strategic planning is essential, but rigid strategies rarely succeed. Operators must be nimble and prepared to adjust pricing, packaging, and distribution to reflect changing consumer behavior and evolving regulatory requirements. “The playbook is always shifting,” Marshall said. “The winners are the ones who can shift with it.”

Regulations vs. Market Reality                                                                                                           If packaging is where brands differentiate, regulation is where they stumble. Chuck Garrity, founder of Death of the Fox Brewing Co., knows firsthand what happens when rules lag behind business. His experience navigating New Jersey’s craft beer rollout gave him a sobering perspective on what to expect when he entered the cannabis industry with his dispensary, Frosted Nug.

“We saw the same messy process with craft beer,” Garrity said. “Government always lags behind business. Cannabis is no different.”

According to Garrity, the problem isn’t just bureaucracy; it’s who writes the rules. Lobbyists, he argued, play an outsized role in shaping legislation. Unless operators engage lawmakers directly, they risk being boxed out of decisions that will shape their businesses for decades.

“Operators need relationships with mayors, senators, and regulators. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” he warned.

The threat of overregulation is real. Rules that are too restrictive, he said, could choke off innovation and slow down the momentum New Jersey needs to stay competitive with neighboring states. For Garrity, political advocacy is not optional; it’s survival.

Manufacturing, Innovation, and White Labeling                                                      Where Garrity sees a risk in policy, Hursh Patel sees opportunity in production. Patel, founder of Red Oak Cannabis, detailed his company’s investment in a CGMP-certified manufacturing facility powered by AI-driven automation to raise the bar on quality, consistency, and efficiency.

“Automation and quality control are everything in cannabis manufacturing,” Patel said. Consumers expect consistency. Retailers demand it. AI helps us deliver it at scale.”

But Patel’s bigger play is in white-labeling. In a landscape where every dispensary is trying to carve out its identity, exclusive brands offer a way to build loyalty and improve margins.

“White label gives retailers the chance to control more of the value chain,” Patel explained. “It’s a high-margin growth path, but it only works with the right partners and strict quality standards.”

The strategy has been successful in other states, where dispensaries have developed in-house brands that compete directly with national players. In a crowded New Jersey market, Patel argued, it could mean the difference between profitability and mediocrity.

Beverages: The Next Super-Category                                                          One trend drew universal attention: beverages. While still a small slice of the market, cannabis drinks are gaining momentum across the U.S., and panelists believe New Jersey won’t be far behind.

Marshall pointed to the West Coast, where dispensaries in California and Oregon are increasingly “fridge-heavy,” dedicating prime space to cannabis beverages. Branding is more experiential, with products designed to appeal to wellness-minded and socially conscious consumers who might never consider smoking a joint.

“Beverages are shaping up to be a super-category,” Marshall said. “In three to five years, they could be the preferred consumption method.”

National brands like Cycling Frog are already building mainstream awareness, helping normalize the idea of drinking cannabis instead of alcohol. For New Jersey operators, beverages represent both an opportunity and a challenge: they require cold storage, different packaging standards, and consumer education. But if the predictions hold true, they could also be the next major driver of growth for dispensaries.

Roadblocks On The Horizon                                                                         Despite the optimism, delivery remains an obstacle, being both costly and underdeveloped. Insurance premiums are steep, and regulations create more friction than efficiency. Without reform, consumers may continue to rely on traditional purchasing channels.

Interstate commerce also looms large. While federal legalization remains stalled, most agree that it’s a matter of when, not if. For New Jersey, with its high operating costs, the threat is real. Once interstate trade opens, local producers may struggle to compete with lower-cost operators on the West Coast.

Then there’s politics. New Jersey’s upcoming gubernatorial election could have a major impact on the regulatory climate. A shift in leadership could accelerate reform or stall it indefinitely.

Key Takeaways for New Jersey Operators                                                  By the end of the session, a handful of themes emerged as survival strategies for cannabis businesses in the Garden State:

  1. Build flexibility into strategy. The rules and market conditions will change—your business model must be ready to adapt.
  2. Study other state markets. Learn from the missteps and successes of other states.
  3. Cultivate political relationships. Lobbying power isn’t optional; it’s how laws get written.
  4. Explore white-label opportunities. House brands can expand margins and consumer loyalty.
  5. Prepare for beverages. There seems to be a big white space for beverages. Whether it’s in two years or five, drinks are poised to lead consumer adoption.

A Market Still Taking Shape                                                                         The challenges are significant, and the future is uncertain, just like any other maturing cannabis market. But for operators willing to stay lean, resourceful, invest in relationships, and think creatively about products, the opportunity remains immense.

“This is still the early innings,” Robbins said in closing. “The operators who thrive will be the ones who treat this like the serious, dynamic consumer market it is, while never forgetting that in cannabis, everything can change overnight.”

 

What you will learn:

  • What makes New Jersey one of the most promising cannabis markets in the U.S.?

  • How are operators adapting to high operating costs and changing regulations?

  • What lessons can New Jersey learn from more mature cannabis markets?

  • Why is packaging important for brand identity and consumer trust in cannabis?

  • How can white-label products help dispensaries improve margins and loyalty?

  • Why are cannabis beverages considered a potential “super-category” for growth?

  • What regulatory and political challenges could impact New Jersey operators?

  • How can operators stay flexible and thrive in a rapidly evolving cannabis market?