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BestBüds in Woodbury in South Jersey and Canopy Crossroads in Red Bank in Central Jersey opened weed dispensaries recently for adult-use cannabis sales.
The BestBüds weed dispensary recently held a grand opening in Woodbury in Gloucester County in South Jersey.
The managing partners are Amanda White Terpstra and Lauren Trujillo.
“Terpstra” is not a play-on on terpenes, which makes weed smell good. It is her real name.
They are happy to be open.
“Nova kind of stole the thunder, though. Not complaining, they’re good neighbors,” Terpstra said.
Indeed, the small corporation that is a Multi-State Operator (MSO) Nova Farms opened its dispensary in Woodury last spring 2023.
Terpstra grew up in town.
She noted they’re in the downtown area.
“We have a great variety. And we really want to focus more on the small New Jersey manufacturers and farmers,” Trujillo explained.
“We believe in bringing a good price point and quality cannabis to the consumer,” she declared.
Trujillo noted they have the brands Full Tilt flower, Precious pre-rolls, and the small MSO Loud Labs vape cartridges or carts and dabbing material.
They also have ButACake brownies by Matha Figaro’s CannPowerment, which has a deal with the MSO Columbia Care for distribution.
“For me to stack their products is a huge accomplishment,” Trujillo explained.
They also have the brand Miss Grass. It was launched by a woman from New Jersey living in California and made a white labeling brand deal with an MSO.
She noted price concerns are very common in the organized New Jersey cannabis community.
“We have that affordable cannabis, and it’s great product,” Trujillo declared.
They have already done a pop-up with the new OGeez gummy brand.
Terpstra said they do have some MSO brands.
“We want to offer the best product to the consumer and the best natural product,” she said.
“The small operators are trying to support the other small operators. To see people struggle and fail is hard. We can support each other,” Terpstra explained. “Exclusivity of products in a region then is key.”
Trujillo called BestBüds dispensary a warm boutique with a relaxed environment, not like an Apple Store, the popular design of the failed MSO Med Men, and others.
“Welcome to my living room. Come hang out,” Terpstra joked.
Trujillo noted they have comfy chairs and artwork decorating the wall.
Terpstra said the front of the store has some art prominently featured and will have more in the future.
“We have an area where you can sit back and talk about your canna journey,” Trujillo added.
“Me and Amanda, we go to festivals. We love music. For us to bring a little of who we are into the store was really important,” Trujillo said.
She noted they have guitars hanging from the space as well.
“Music brings people together, and cannabis brings people together,” Terpstra said.
“Music just unifies people on a different level. Cannabis is just communal partaking,” Trujillo noted.
Trujillo argued it would set them apart.
Like many, they have budtenders with tablets ready to help customers.
“It’s awesome to see the community come and understand it’s not just about getting high. It’s about …helping your balance in life,” Trujillo said.
She said they are eager to explain it.
Terpstra said they want to do a “Terpene of the Month” explaining terpene profiles and their effects to consumers.
Trujillo noted the need to de-stigmatize cannabis.
“We started in the hemp CBD space. We did take a few days of training to make sure our employees were trained as well. This industry needs more education,” Amanda said.
“It’s great to be one of the few women and Hispanic-owned dispensaries with our doors open,” Trujillo said.
She is Puerto Rican, and she has a lot of family there.
“There’s not a lot of, ya know, Hispanics dispensaries that are women-owned,” Trujillo noted.
Their General Manager is a Latina as well.
Trujillo said their budtenders are bilinguals and speak Spanish since Woodbury has a significant Hispanic population.
“We’re proud to bring our vision to life and provide a space where women are uplifted, and cannabis education is a priority,” she said.
BestBüds got its conditional weed dispensary license in October 2022. Terpstra received the annual award license letter needed to open in October 2023 from the NJCRC.
“Me and Amanda are truly best buds, best friends since college,” Trujillo explained.
Terpstra and Trujillo met while playing soccer at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Both live in Morris County in North Jersey.
Terpstra noted she worked at two banks before.
Trujillo explained she worked in technology and marketing for different companies like Samsung. She is a Certified Financial Professional.
Terpstra said she comes from an entrepreneurial family and her grandmother owned a title agency in Woodbury handling real estate sales.
“I never had the mindset I couldn’t own my own business,” she said.
Terpstra said getting money was difficult. But they were able to find friends and family investors.
“It took us a year to get that investor and that money locked in,” she noted.
Terpstra noted someone did try to sue them because of a school and a nuisance daycare, but thankfully they won it.
As a local, she knew some politicians who helped when it was difficult.
“We were lobbying without realizing it,” Terpstra joked. “We fought for it.”
Terpstra said she was thinking of going to grad school when Trujillo wanted to launch a business, and they opened BestBüds. So, they started as a CBD business tabling at pop-up events in 2019.
Terpstra noted they also did e-commerce sales as well.
Initially, they wanted to sell branded hemp products and found investors for the dispensary license.
The goal was always a weed dispensary license.
Terpstra would like BestBüds to sell CBD products at dispensaries, which currently is not allowed due to some of the state laws around hemp.
(Photos courtesy of company owners.)
Canopy Crossroad dispensary in Red Bank in Monmouth County in Central Jersey recently opened as well.
The Dispensary Guy, Mike Wiehl, went to their opening.
NJ State Senator Vin Gopal (D-11), who is a champion of cannabis home grow legalization, which remains a felony, represents the area and joined them for a celebratory photo.
The Asbury Park Press said they applied to be a microbusiness with less than 2,500 square feet.
“An independent women and family-owned and operated adult-use dispensary in Monmouth County, NJ. Our goal is to immerse customers in an experience that informs perceptions of cannabis through connection, information, and guidance,” they wrote on LinkedIn.
Canopy Crossroad dispensary said in a press release, “the dispensary aims to offer personalized, education-focused customer experiences for both new and seasoned cannabis users.”
“They created the space to change perceptions of adult-use cannabis by fostering a safe, welcoming environment for all in their local community,” the press release said about the owners.
“At Canopy Crossroad, we offer the highest quality product available to the market, but our mission is bigger than that,” Co-founder Caryn Cohen explained. “We want to take the taboo out of cannabis and be a positive influence on the community.”
Canopy Crossroad dispensary called itself “the only locally owned and operated dispensary in Red Bank.”
“The company recognizes that cannabis experiences are not the same for every individual. Some customers will be seeking a euphoric experience. Others will be pursuing more general wellness goals, such as improved sleep, general pain management, or relief of chronic illness symptoms,” they noted.
The company said it wants to focus on education that is science based, practice sustainability, and take initiatives “to support residents and the thriving art and cultural activities for which Red Bank is known.”
Canopy Crossroad was founded by Cohen and her husband, Andy Zeitlin, a chemist who created many lifesaving drugs in his previous career.
They say they are locals.
The Asbury Park Press noted Zeitlin tried to get a medical marijuana license in the 2018 lottery round.
According to the Asbury Park Press, Zeitlin co-founded the pharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. They were bought by the Big Pharma corporation Bristol Myers Squibb for billions of dollars.
They also told the Asbury Park Press they were business partners with another couple who were congratulated for the opening on Instagram. In addition, they have another partner as well according to their website.
So, they had enough cash on hand to get through hurdles others cannot.
“The MSOs are going to go wherever the market is, and without some protections for the local industry to grow, they would basically dominate,” Zeitlin told the Asbury Park Press.
“There was a couple of things that the New Jersey law did cool, which was social equity, social justice,” Cohen said. “So that’s minority-owned, women-owned, impact zones.”
We’re local people, we have partners that are local, we have investors that are local. So, we’re not some big MSO,” Cohen added.
Many in the organized New Jersey cannabis community agree with him. Unfortunately, the MSOs have been building brand recognition for more time, and the average cannabis consumer might not know about their many problems.
According to the Asbury Park Press, Cohen herself was an early New Jersey medical marijuana patient.
Their press release said Cohen and Zeitlin both benefited from New Jersey’s Medicinal Cannabis Program.
According to their press release, Cohen reduced the amount of prescription medication she needed to relieve symptoms of her ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis. Zeitlin decreased prescription medications to treat anxiety.
They see “Canopy Crossroad as a place to educate others on the potential benefits of cannabis while providing valuable resources and top-quality cannabis products.”
Canopy Crossroad dispensary won the annual weed dispensary license needed to open legally in February 2024 from the NJCRC as a micro business after initially winning a conditional license in October 2022.
They won local approval in May 2023 from the Red Bank Planning Board. Then Canopy Crossroad dispensary won approval from the Red Bank Cannabis Review Board and City Council, which is needed to open a year ago in October 2023.
Like many, they had anti-marijuana protestors complaining they were near a school as if children could walk in alone and get free gummies that would turn them into zombies.
Those 21 and under, even if accompanied by an adult, cannot enter dispensaries. Sales are strictly restricted to those 21 and over.
Red Bank, while a progressive town, is small and creating very small Green Zones where cannabis companies can operate.
The anti-marijuana prohibitionists either don’t know or don’t care. They were able to delay their opening for a while.
At their approval hearing, the Planning Board members defended the weed dispensary to a lawyer hired to make anti-marijuana arguments.
Like in many other towns, Red Bank politics around it have been tumultuous, especially around cannabis.
Red Bank is a great place to go drinking, especially if someone else is driving. There are a lot of bars and clubs of different styles close together to go to enjoy yourself and flirt. You could have dinner and a beer at an Irish bar and then stroll over to dance or do shots at one of the more suave nightclub-type places.
Scarlet Reserve dispensary in nearby Englishtown (which Heady NJ has an ad deal with, full disclosure) tried to open in Red Bank by converting their existing smoke shop but had Green Zone problems.
They were too close to the park by the river in the town featured in the movie Chasing Amy by Kevin Smith.
(Photo courtesy of the owners.)
“}]] BestBüds in Woodbury and Canopy Crossroads in Red Bank opened weed dispensaries recently for adult-use cannabis sales. Read More