Norwich's first cannabis dispensary opens, bringing jobs and tax revenue

Since November 2021, Norwich has been courting the adult use cannabis industry to come to the city. Now, the first of those businesses has opened.

Zen Leaf Dispensary opened on West Main Street on Friday, with a ribbon cutting by the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce. The facility, which features products for both adult use and medical patients, is the third Zen Leaf location in the state. The Meriden facility provides recreational and medicinal use products; the Waterbury location is medical marijuana only. Verano Holdings, based in Chicago, is the owner of Zen Leaf.

The outside is white painted brick with the Zen Leaf logo. Inside, there’s a waiting room, which leads into the dispensary counter. It’s split in two with one side handling all customers, and the other specifically for medical patients.

“We will always maintain your access to medicine as our top priority here,” Gary Krol, retail director for the north region of Connecticut, said.

Some of the products sold by Zen Leaf in Norwich include cannabis flower at $40 to $55 for an eighth of an ounce, gummies for $35, and vape cartridges for $35 for a half gram, Krol said.

Social equity partnership store

This Zen Leaf location is a social equity joint venture. Among other qualifiers, the candidate given the license must have lived in an area disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs for at least five years, or was from a disproportionately impacted area for nine of their first 18 years of life. The social equity partner for the Norwich Zen Leaf is Brittany Hart, who grew up in New Britain. She hopes the dispensary will encourage economic development, promoting business, jobs, and people coming to the impacted areas.

“That’s what those communities need desperately,” she said.

The Zen Leaf dispensary had a soft opening earlier in the week. While there aren’t exact numbers for how many customers will be at this dispensary on a regular basis, there were a substantial number of people at the soft opening, and the numbers continue to grow, Verano Vice President of National Retail Operations Joshua Kudisch said.

“We’re interested in having the community here, seeking out what cannabis can do,” he said.

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Local customers are happy

One of the first people in line Friday was Norwich resident Robert Wallace. He was keen on having a dispensary nearby.

“Montville’s not that far, but this is close to home,” he said.

Wallace has had a medical card for four years, and he said cannabis helps him.

“I’d rather use this medicine than the ones I get from the doctor,” he said.

Another customer was Norwich resident Bethany Pabon. She was purchasing cannabis for adult use, but is looking at how to become a medical client. She said it’s important to have a dispensary in Norwich.

“It couldn’t have made me happier,” she said. “It’s the best thing about living in Norwich.”

Opening the new Norwich dispensary is “breaking a barrier” and giving people access to a healing product, while building a relationship with the community, Verano National Store Opener Audits and Integrations Vincent Anderson said.

“We're not just here for now, we’re here forever,” he said.

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A source of jobs and community assistance

Zen Leaf wants to be a source of jobs, education to get rid of cannabis stigma, and community service, including donations to CT Foodshare and local food pantries, and working with criminal record expungement clinics, Kudisch said.

“We look to become foundations and pillars in our communities” he said.

The people who work at Zen Leaf have been friendly and helpful, Pabon said.

With the risk of fentanyl and other adulterants possible in street drugs, “it’s good to have a regulated business,” said state Sen. Cathy Osten.

“It won’t happen with a business like this because they care about the product they deliver, who they deliver it to, and they make sure it’s a clean product,” she said.

Revenue for the city

Beyond having a regulated source for cannabis in the city, Zen Leaf is helping add jobs and tax revenue. Currently, it employs 17 people, but aims to employ 33. An exact tax revenue isn’t known yet, but it’s expected to be “a substantial amount,” Norwich Community Development Corporation President Kevin Brown said.

“It is more than just a business, it’s a partnership with the city,” he said.

The 3% municipal tax on cannabis sales has a limited amount of uses, but the city should see if it can be put toward community policing efforts, Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said.

Two cultivators are committed to coming to Norwich, one in Greeneville and one by Hollyhock Island, and both are expecting to begin cultivation sometime this winter. The city is still interested in having a second retailer, Brown said.

Even though this means more competition, encouraging further development of the cannabis industry will benefit Norwich, Hart said.

“If we can be the example to set for other cannabis businesses about how they run and open here, I think that would be good too,” she said.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Zen Leaf marijuana dispensary opens in Norwich for adult, medical use