New cannabis dispensary opening in North Jersey this weekend
HACKENSACK — Hashery, a recreational cannabis dispensary, is opening in the city this weekend in a shopping center along a busy stretch of Route 17.
The opening comes after years of work to obtain approvals and permits and find a location, said Len Coleman, one of the partners.
“We had talked to various cities, but the one that resonated and stuck with us was Hackensack,” he said. “There’s been struggles and hurdles, but we’re excited to be opening. We've been popping into the businesses on Main Street. We want to be part of the community, and make the distinction, we're Hackensack's dispensary.”
The 4,000-square-foot store at 409 Route 17 South will hold a ribbon cutting event Saturday at 1 p.m. with a DJ, and a tent outside with tables and food for customers.
The shop will be open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to adults 21 and older and features a drive-through — the second drive-through dispensary in North Jersey. Its products include smokeable flower, concentrates, edibles, capsules, topical creams and vaporizers.
Sam Jurist, a co-founder of Hashery, works in the cannabis industry in California and is the CEO of Focus V and Rosin Tech Labs, two businesses that develop and manufacture products for the industry, with a focus on solventless “hash,” or cannabis extracts.
The store will also sell water pipes and other glassware from California, through Jurist’s company. “We’ll have a lot of stuff that’s not even on the East Coast yet,” Coleman said.
Jurist and Coleman have been friends since middle school, growing up in Somerset County, and were roommates in Hoboken after college.
The company’s size — about 40 employees — and the partners’ Jersey roots sets Hashery apart from most of the other dispensaries in the area, Coleman said.
“We’re not like the big multistate operators that are around us. Those are massive companies,” he said. “We’re homegrown. This isn’t like opening another store for us. This is our baby.”
Hackensack voters supported legalizing marijuana by more than 70% in a 2020 referendum. The city eventually approved one retail license and two cultivator licenses. Officials said they chose the zones in which the the businesses are allowed to operate to minimize the impact on residents.
The growing facilities are approved for an industrial city neighborhood near Route 80, and the retail store’s location in a Route 17 strip mall is away from residential neighborhoods.
Municipalities reap a 2% transfer tax from such companies on top of the property taxes they pay.
"Throughout the cannabis legalization process the city remained committed to balancing public safety and our residents' quality of life, with the potential for new revenue,” said Nick Bond, a city spokesman. “We will continue to monitor the impact of this new sector and invite feedback from the public to ensure we are addressing the needs of the community.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey getting another cannabis dispensary, to open Dec. 16
