First legal weed business in Atlantic City, NJ is closing

The first business selling cannabis legally in Atlantic City will also be the first to close its doors.

The Botanist, which opened in February 2020 at 1301 Boardwalk, is closing on August 18th.

I don't want to give the wrong impression about the business of selling cannabis legally based on the closing of the Atlantic City Botanist store — this location of the dispensary sells only medical marijuana.

Atlantic City's "green zone" laws prohibit the sale of recreational weed on the Boardwalk.

The Botanist's stores in Egg Harbor Township and Williamstown, which also sell recreational cannabis products, are staying open.

While The Botanist hasn't made any official statement about closing the Boardwalk store, the first reason that comes to mind is there's probably more money to be made selling recreational cannabis.

While that may be true, there seems to be more to it from the medical marijuana customer's perspective.

The store's closure follows a steep drop in the sale of medical marijuana since the introduction of legalized weed, with about $226 million in sales in 2022, compared to $124 million in 2023.

Many People Have Dropped Out of NJ's Medical Cannabis Program

According to marijuanamomnet.net, there were over 129,000 people registered for NJ's medical cannabis program in 2022 when the state's recreational cannabis shops began to open.

Since then the number of people signed up for medical weed has fallen to around 80,000, according to state data.

Why is this? Here are a few reasons, again according to marijuanamomnet.net

People in the medical cannabis program say doctors’ visits are too expensive and there’s not enough incentive to stay in the program.

Ken Wolski, director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey says fees include out-of-pocket payments of between $150 and $200 a visit and doctors asking patients to renew every 90 days or annually.

Several bills introduced in the Legislature aim to expand insurance coverage to include covering medical marijuana, but none have made it out of committee.

About 1500 doctors are registered with the state program, and many on the agency’s list are labeled as not taking new patients.