The Different Facet Dispensary (TOSD), a disabled veteran-founded and equity-aligned hashish enterprise, is closing its doorways as a direct results of extended municipal inaction, regulatory inconsistency and coverage selections by Jersey Metropolis officers that made long-term sustainability inconceivable.
“This enterprise didn’t fail due to demand, efficiency or administration,” mentioned Dr. Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez, founding father of The Different Facet Dispensary. “It failed as a result of Jersey Metropolis created a regulatory atmosphere the place doing all the pieces proper nonetheless isn’t sufficient to outlive.”
After greater than three years navigating native approvals, delayed ordinances, stalled oversight boards and escalating charges, TOSD’s closure underscores a broader reckoning dealing with New Jersey’s authorized hashish market—the place unchecked license saturation, political gridlock and bureaucratic dysfunction have pushed compliant small operators to the brink whereas undermining town’s personal fairness targets.
A Case Examine in Municipal Breakdown
TOSD entered New Jersey’s adult-use hashish market in early 2022 in response to the state’s name for veteran-led and deprived operators. The dispensary obtained early state and native approvals, together with unanimous assist from the Jersey Metropolis Hashish Management Board (CCB). Nevertheless, what adopted was a multi-year sample of delays and reversals on the municipal stage:
- Repeated Planning Board postponements, together with an costly and in the end pointless approval course of that value tens of hundreds of {dollars}, a course of later eliminated for future candidates.
- Bifurcation of retail and consumption lounge functions, forcing early candidates to attend years for guidelines that didn’t but exist.
- Corrupt stop-work orders and inspections that halted building for months.
- A non-functional Hashish Management Board, leaving functions unreviewed and endorsements unprocessed.
- Unrestricted license issuance, leading to practically 60 dispensaries in a metropolis of 300,000 — one of the crucial saturated hashish markets within the nation.
Practically 30 months after incorporation, TOSD was lastly allowed to open in October 2024, and was already struggling as a result of months of holding prices.
Fairness in Identify Solely
Town’s failure to well timed implement consumption lounge endorsements proved particularly damaging. For early operators like TOSD, lounges have been positioned as a important sustainability software — but town delayed approvals whereas persevering with to difficulty new retail licenses.
In consequence, TOSD confronted:
- Greater than $65,000 yearly in licensing charges
- Native and state quarterly taxes, together with a steep municipal hashish tax
- Estimated monetary damages exceeding $1.7 million
- Eight staff have been displaced and greater than $300,000 in misplaced wages and ideas
Regardless of working profitably, sustaining sturdy margins and reaching practically $1 million in income in its first 12 months, the enterprise couldn’t overcome the cumulative burden of coverage failures and extended uncertainty.
“If we have been handled like some other enterprise, we might not be closing. In our first 12 months, we generated practically $900,000 in internet gross sales with gross margins exceeding 60%. By any commonplace, that may be a wholesome, high-performing operation. The distinction is that hashish companies are burdened with regulatory prices and delays that no different business is predicted to soak up,” Brevard-Rodriguez mentioned.
Nationwide Business Headwinds Elevate Stakes Even Larger
TOSD’s closure is happening in opposition to the backdrop of great nationwide hashish coverage uncertainty and monetary strain throughout the business:
Federal Rescheduling and Ongoing Authorized Uncertainty: There are lively federal discussions and government actions geared toward reclassifying hashish from Schedule I to Schedule III, reflecting recognition of medical use that’s meant to cut back onerous tax burdens and improve analysis potentialities. Nevertheless, the sensible implementation timeline — and the way it will have an effect on the broader business — stays unclear and erratically understood, including to market uncertainty.
Federal Hemp Ban and Market Disruption: A 2025 federal spending invoice modified the definition of hemp, tightening THC limits on hemp-derived merchandise in a approach that business analysts say might make nearly all of merchandise at present available on the market unlawful underneath federal legislation when the rule takes impact in late 2026. Business teams warn this might devastate a multibillion-dollar sector and result in main job and income losses.
Debt and Monetary Pressure Throughout Operators: Throughout the U.S., hashish companies face mounting debt burdens. Many operators entered the market with heavy upfront prices and restricted entry to conventional monetary companies. Onerous federal tax codes like Part 280E (nonetheless affecting many state-legal operators) and an absence of constant financing choices proceed to squeeze margins and threaten enterprise stability.
These nationwide developments create an atmosphere the place even well-run operators wrestle to entry capital and stay solvent, elevating broader considerations that with out significant federal reform and sustainable coverage frameworks, the authorized hashish market might see consolidation, closures and an erosion of authorized client choices — probably feeding demand again to the illicit market.
A Warning, Not an Outlier
TOSD shouldn’t be alone. A number of Jersey Metropolis dispensaries have closed since mid-2025, with extra anticipated to comply with. Operators warn that with out fast reform — significantly round license caps, price buildings and practical oversight — communities danger hollowing out the authorized hashish market and driving shoppers again to unregulated channels.
“This didn’t need to occur,” Brevard-Rodriguez mentioned. “Jersey Metropolis had the prospect to construct a sustainable, equitable market. As a substitute, it selected delay, saturation, and politics — and small companies are paying the worth.”
