in our Spotlight on Business Report tonight cornering the Cannabis Market Sunday marked the 2-year anniversary of New Jersey's recreational Cannabis sales and since then the market has ballooned from a few fledgling dispensaries across the state to more than a 100 including recreational only medical and a combo of both but as Melissa Rose Cooper reports while that side of the industry is booming support for hom grow has yet to take off [Music] watching it grow has been amazing like I'm still in disbelief like I can't believe that we're here I can't believe we're doing it it was just a dream it was just a something we talked about and now it's ha so everything I wake up and I pinch myself like is this real like are we really doing this feelings of excitement shakana Paul still feels every day she walks through the doors here at Noir the Maplewood cannabis dispensary she owns with her husband Giovani um going back when I was a kid thinking about marijuana and how it was illegal and you say no to drve drug to now know that it's legal we able to operate and sell so it's an amazing feeling it's still surreal um but exciting the couple open the store in September becoming the second blackowned adult youth shop in New Jersey and the first to open in the northern part of the state I think it's awesome um being seeing that everyone is embracing it and uh welcoming the product we're removing the stigma uh still ways to go but just to see the progression from the initial to now has been very overwhelming and now Noir is joining dozens of other New Jersey dispensaries as they Mark the second anniversary of recreational Cannabis sales in the state I think it's a it's a huge milestone that we're now two years into uh adult use cannabis sales in the state of New Jersey um the market is expanding it still shows a lot of potential um and it's growing day by day there's now 130 stores open uh retail sites uh more and more cultivators are opening up uh and more and more manufacturers so there's greater product diversity more choices for consumers Jeff Brown is the executive director of the New Jersey cannabis Regulatory Commission he says the adult use Market helped generate $1.3 billion in cannabis sales since launching two years ago with 800 million in sales last year alone and since the state began reforming cannabis in 2018 the industry has generated $2 billion with another 1 billion projected this year so our team is moving through license applications dayby day month by month um we've now received over 2500 applications uh vast majority of those are for conditional licenses which are a first step to get into the market um we've issued over 1,800 licenses uh license Awards um and about 500 of those are for annual Awards which would be uh for businesses to to begin operation so they just need to pass a final inspection uh before they could begin operation but while many cannabis entrepreneurs are happy about the progress the industry has made they say there are still a number of barriers they face trying to enter the market when you think about it on the licensing side not only are you going through a rigorous application process with the canas Regulatory Commission you're also going through a rigorous application process with the municipality there's also High competition you're short of like bumping shoulders with other hopefuls to be in this market hoping you get that sort of like golden license golden ticket to operate precious OSAA tried opening up a legal dispensary in her hometown of East Orange last year but was denied a license although a disappointment it forced her to pursue other ways of entering the market legally I said to myself well instead of having one dispensary what are the products inside dispensaries and um I formed a pre-roll brand and I named it precious because I wanted folks to remember that there are many different Avenues to join cannabis it's not just from being a license holder but you can also be a brand so instead of having one dispensary I have a pre-roll product that'll be in most dispensaries in New Jersey launch in May but there's still at least one more Avenue into the industry cannabis Advocates want to be explored the ability to cultivate at home Senator vinal supports the initiative and says he's disappointed New Jersey has yet to adopt it because the purpose of legalizing cannabis was done for social justice purposes that's what everyone said the purpose was so the Optics right now is that it's being done to help a bunch of Corporations when every other state in the Union has that has legalized cannabis has a hom grow provision but we don't um that's pretty telling that's pretty alarming um there's no reason not to start at least at medical patients uh I mean I think it's pretty unacceptable at this point as recreational sales increase the CRC maintains they haven't forgotten about the medicinal Community implementing initiatives like in-person registration clinics to help people get signed up and despite any challenges business owners say they're looking forward to the continued expansion of cannabis in the state for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper [Music]