The Other Side Dispensary in Jersey City Opens

The Other Side Dispensary opens in Jersey City

The minority, female LGBTQ owned The Other Side Dispensary (TOSD) has opened in the Heights neighborhood of Jersey City in the north of the city.

Their Saturday grand opening was a large afraid which featured local Council people Yousef Saleh and James Solomon.

“We shut the whole block down. The whole community was involved,” TOSD Founder Dr. Alyza “Beast” Brevard-Rodriguez explained.

They plan on doing more pop-up events with brands and party festivity fun soon.

“We’re trying to bring the culture,” Alyza said.

“We’re also dog-friendly,” she added. 

Brevard-Rodriguez said people might want to stop in and buy a pre-roll while walking their dog.

Fun Dispensary Atmosphere

The Other Side Dispensary is a well-decorated place with a book on local Jersey City history. In addition, they have artificial moss and plants, which give it a unique touch.

The Other Side Dispensary show floor
The Other Side Dispensary show floor

Copies of the Cannabis and Tech Magazine issue where they were featured were available around the place.

There’s even a basketball hoop.

They still have a lobby or vestibule where you can’t see the dispensary floor. But it has a weed flower and a slogan, which makes it more inviting.

Brevard-Rodriguez said they pushed back against having a window you can’t see through. It looks shady when you can’t see into the store. Unfortunately, that seems to perpetuate cannabis stereotypes and a negative stigma. 

A lot of towns have demand dispensaries have glass you can’t see through.

The Other Side Dispensary offers senior discounts, medical patient discounts, and HERO discounts which cover military, emergency service providers, and teachers.

Brevard-Rodriguez criticized large cannabis corporations that are Mutli-State Operators (MSOs) for not knowing the landscape they go in.

New NJ Cannabis Brands Available

The Other Side Dispensary is selling the new brand Fresh Grow LLC cannabis flower with pictures of birds. Their cannabis flower is available for customers to smell and see-through glass and helped by a magnifying lens at their bud bar.

The Otherside Dispensary TOSD in Jersey City Fresh flower
Fresh Grow LLC cannabis flower at the bud bar

Brevard-Rodriguez notes their menu was very curated. So they had many new products available. For example they have gummies with live resin from the Black-owned Mudd Brothers brand. They have a deal with the MSO Ayr and make hash and dabbing products.

The Other Side Dispensary also featured Growfather gummies by George Martorano of the Philadelphia crime family whose Godfather Angelo Bruno was portrayed in the crime epic The Irishman movie. George went to jail for decades for selling and distributing marijuana.

They have other newer brands like Elyon, Northth Lake Supply pre-rolls, and Pyramid Budder vape cartridges or carts.

In addition, the Other Side Dispensary also has vapes from the small company Fernway from Massacuehsetts cannabis vape products, and Miss Grass pre-rolls were prominently displayed.

Brevard-Rodriguez said TOSD will be the only dispensary in the Heights with Precious pre-rolls.

They are also going to sell ButACake edible products soon.

“We want to be the place with the fresh drops… brings the freshest brands,” she explained.

Brevard-Rodriguez noted they’re closely tracking product success to optimize their menu further.

“We barely have any MSO products,” she explained.

Brevard-Rodriguez said they wanted to be sure the MSOs they work with are aligned with their values. Ayr was cited as a good one, for example.

The Other Side Dispensary is planning a lounge on its second floor. It will not be too large with a capacity of 45 people. It will be more like a coffeehouse than the rowdy bar so many normies fear. So people will be able to work remotely with wifi available if they’d like.

It will be a good place to host different sorts of events with furniture that can be rearranged. There will also be a Membership program with perks.

TOSD wants to serve different sorts of drinks. However, they are concerned about the NJCRC’s ongoing policymaking process. 

While they want to open a cannabis consumption lounge, the State has yet to finalize those rules and and allow legal lounges to open.

“We want it to be community-oriented,” Alyza explained.

She noted the value of building trust with the community. 

They want to contribute to breaking the stigma.

Quality Team

Brevard-Rodriguez believes in craft cannabis and quality service at her Jersey City dispensary.

“We make sure our budtenders are very knowledgeable,” she said.

Brevard-Rodriguez noted her General Manager worked for MSOs in other states, so he has a lot of experience. 

“All the people we contracted are minorities,” she said.

Brevard-Rodriguez noted the diversity of the company personnel.

TOSD says it’s one of the first all-minority-funded dispensaries to open.

The Other Side Dispensary Ownership Background

Brevard-Rodriguez is the first Black, LatinX, LGBTQ female disabled veteran licensed cannabis operator in New Jersey. She has lived in Jersey City since 2007.

Some partner teams can have all those attributes. But she’s all in one.

Co-owner Corey Jackson is an African American man who worked for the MSO Ascend before opening TOSD.

Unfortunately, it did not seem to help much.

“Those certifications didn’t do s**t for us. We still took 31 months. If they were really beneficial, there’s no way that these other dispensaries would have just been popping up,” Brevard-Rodriguez declared.

She described her problems at an NJCRC meeting lamenting the great delay and red tape and feeling ignored by the State that nearly caused her company to fold before opening.

Brevard-Rodriguez said it took $1.3 million dollars to open.

She has noted she stands she is near the Goldilocks ideal of who advocates, and many industry people want to see her succeed in the market. However, she noted they are not a micro business or social equity owned which are included the ideal of some.

Lengthy Resume 

After serving 10 years in the military, she founded SW3AT. It’s a wellness studio that expanded into multiple locations in Hudson County. They offer a lot of interesting services like a salt cave, yoga, meditation classes, and a South Bath, which is great for healing.

Brevard-Rodriguez is a Professor at Hudson County Community College in their Cannabis Studies program. In addition, she is a twice-disabled combat veteran, having served in the U.S. Navy in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brevard-Rodriguez combines her experience with holistic wellness solutions and cannabis to promote empowerment in marginalized communities. 

Like other successful dispensary owners who opened, she is a serial entrepreneur who launched other successful businesses before. 

Brevard-Rodriguez said the name “The Other Side Dispensary” comes from being on the other side of her military career and the other side of alternative wellness. Plus, the saying “it’s always greener on the other side.”

“It’s only green when you water it,” she said.

As Heady NJ Editor & Publisher, I was recently featured on their Coffee and Cannabis podcast and video show. 

Brevard-Rodriguez and Jackson have become prominent with their show. They have featured many other prominent cannabis businesspeople as well.

Notably, she is not worried about being too close to other dispensaries.

“I’m not worried about a dammed thing!” Alyza declared.

TOSD is near other dispensaries but not as bad as some dispensaries across the street from each other.

The Other Side Dispensary received its Jersey Cannabis Control Board (CCB) approval in July 2022. They won an initial conditional cannabis license from the State in October 2022. Then, TOSD won conversion to the annual license needed to open from the NJCRC this past April 2024.

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