As Heady NJ Editor I made a livestream video on Instagram reviewing how progress after 6 years of running the company.

Due to their shadow ban and marijuana prohibition, we had not been able to go live for a while.

I noted I’m really grateful for all the readers, viewers, commenters, newsletter subscribers, Patreon supporters, and all the advertisers and sponsors! All have helped Heady NJ make progress!

It’s been wild trying to be a businessman in a new industry, trying to be a businessman in this new industry, and a learning process.

I’ve learned a lot as a businessman, as a person, as a journalist, and certainly as the Editor, but this is just a guy who’s writing as well.

Reviewing NJ Cannabis Market Growth

I literally covered the seventh dispensary ever in New Jersey. We’re at like, what, 270? There’s so many I literally can’t keep track.

(Heady NJ has been in the process of launching our Finder Directory so you can find legal weed nearby!)

There’s always a question of how many dispensaries could ever be in Jersey.

We’re also seeing new products like different kinds of edibles. We’ve seen people trying to pioneer drinks and locally owned chains.

There are New Jersey cannabis lounges that are open! You can’t really say that about a lot of the other markets. The problem is they’re in South Jersey, and I live in Essex County, closer to Newark than AC.

We’ve definitely been seeing more brands bring more flower to market. We’ve also seen the rise of local brands, minority owned brands, Hispanic-owned brands, Black owned brands, and some Asian owned companies.

In some other states, similar people made less progress.

It’s difficult because a lot of the people that tried initially are still struggling to open.

I run this on a shoestring. This is a small, humble business.

It’s definitely been interesting covering these legacy to legal issues, seeing who can make the transition as a businessman. You almost have to be a serial businessman, like you’re on your second business, third business, and have some money and experience to be successful, the way the legal market was designed.

But for a lot of guys, including me, it’s their first legal business. It’s intense. There’s a lot of paperwork.

An entrepreneur wears many hats, but they don’t all fit.

It has been fun seeing some chains operate as well. Uh, guys who are not only the large, you know, multi-state operators, uh, for example, seeing like other events, and it’s been fun growing, you know, becoming more respectable.

They said we hit a billion dollars last year, uh, by Christmas. We’ll see what we get by this Christmas.

Markets ebb and flow. So, we’ll see about the numbers.

We have covered a few closings already.

It is hard, the nature of the cause. The nature of all of this is hard. A lot of people in the legal cannabis industry thought it’d be easier, thought we’d be making more money by now.

HNJ Events and Other Ideas

We were going trying to do an award show. But unfortunately, we’re not gonna be able to do it this November. We’ve been dealing with logistical issues. I’ve also been dealing with some chronic burnout issues. It’s been intense, you know, really trying to run a business, trying to figure out how to make this work.

Experimenting and Feedback

We have been thinking of experimenting with new content and revenue streams, what content do people like, and which format, and how do we make money? To sustain it and manage people and deal with some of the headaches, you know, and the nature of that to get to like the glamor and seeing that, you know, we’ve definitely had like wild progress in Jersey.

We’re trying to think of other events we wanna do. For example, we might do events in South Jersey. We might do events in Atlantic City. We’re trying to think of different types of themes for events.

People do see them enjoy events.

We also might put content behind a Patreon wall, like a series of interviews with entrepreneurs.

We might do some more merch.

A podcast might be fun. We launched the Heady Chronicle podcast, but we have not done much with it.

People have said I should have my own heady products in the market, like Heady bags of flower, heady prerolls, heady vapes.

We are very open to feedback!

Intoxicating Hemp Banned

We got all sorts of stories coming up all the time, like Congress banning intoxicating hemp last week. There was talk of this for a while.

We have been in a civil war between the followers of Brother Hemp and Brother Cannabis. We’ve had this for like a little while now. Big Booze, Big Pharma, and other big interests in American society and industry were fighting against hemp too.

NJ-CRC Changes

New Jersey has seen great progress in the growth of the cannabis market under Governor Phil Murphy and NJ-Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) Chair Dianna Houenou.

But Governor Murphy’s term will be up next January 2026, and a lot could change.

We’ve seen three Commissioners leave: Charles Barker, Sam Delgado, and Maria Del Cid. We thank them for their service.

We have one new Commissioner who’s in limbo, named Harris Laufer. He used to work for NJ Senate President Nick Scutari while he championed cannabis market legalization after the referendum. But he has been an opponent of cannabis home grow legalization.

Also, we’re gonna have a new Governor of New Jersey in January, Mikie Sherrill, a Congresswoman from the 11^th District.

She says she’s for homegrown. So hopefully some progress can be made.