As New Jersey Cannabis Matures, Beth Conway Builds Community

When I first moved back to my home state of New Jersey, I was trying to get a read on what was real and what was noise.

This state has momentum, but it also has a cloud of uncertainty surrounding it. Everyone’s “in cannabis.” Everyone’s “launching.” Everyone’s “building community.” Then you show up somewhere and realize half the room is there for the idea of cannabis, not the work of cannabis.

The first time I walked into one of Beth Conway’s events, it felt starkly different from the dozens of cannabis events I’d been to in the last year alone. 

I was impressed by who she brought out. Actual operators. Brand owners. People with receipts. Not just low-level employees sent as a formality, and definitely not a crowd of cannabis wannabes collecting business cards like they’re trying to speedrun the industry.

That’s what made me want to sit down with Conway and talk about what she’s building, because she’s not playing the popularity game. She’s building infrastructure.

New Jersey is no longer the “new” market. It’s the market that’s growing.

The NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission’s 2024 annual report lays it out plainly. As of the report, New Jersey had 265 adult-use operators, including 181 retailers, plus cultivators, manufacturers, laboratories, and a wholesaler. That is the real scale for a state that is still figuring out its long-term identity.

At the same time, this market is not wide open. The CRC notes that 60% of municipalities have rejected cannabis businesses, which keeps location strategy and local politics front and center for operators. If you are building in Jersey, you are not just opening a store. You are navigating a patchwork map where some towns want you and others do not.

Financial pressure is part of the story, too. The CRC points to “financial hurdles” created by federal illegality that keep traditional tools out of reach. That reality shapes everything, from expansion plans to marketing budgets to who survives a slow quarter.

But consumer demand is no longer a question. The state’s quarterly sales totals show adult-use sales of $1,000,125,130 in 2024, generating $61,019,060 in recreational tax revenue. In the CRC annual report, the agency frames 2024 as a year with more than $1 billion in sales, nearly 10,000 industry workers, and meaningful impact for ancillary businesses.

In 2025, the pace continued. The state’s 2025 sales totals show $532,595,957 in recreational sales across Q1 and Q2 alone.

Here’s the part operators feel day to day: the market is expanding, but it’s tightening.

The CRC’s December 17, 2025, public meeting slides show adult-use flower prices per gram dropping from $10.98 in Oct 2024 to $8.09 in Oct 2025, a -26.3% year-over-year change. A market can be booming and still be ruthless. That price compression means brands need a sharper story and better execution, and retailers have to be more selective about what earns shelf space.

This is exactly why rooms with real decision makers matter right now.

Beth Conway is a small business consultant and strategist, and she founded the New Jersey Cannabis Chamber of Commerce with Brendan Robinson, co-founder of Mud Brothers.

Conway told me the origin story is not some overly polished “startup founder” narrative. She was doing what many hungry people do. Showing up. Networking. Learning how chambers work across the state. She mentioned visiting chambers like Jersey Shore, Princeton Mercer, and Hudson County, trying to understand the playbook.

At the same time, she was on the dispensary floor doing customer service and upselling. That hands-on piece matters. It grounds you fast. You learn what customers actually ask for. You learn how products move. You learn how hard the front line can be in a regulated industry.

Conway had the obvious thought: I should lean into cannabis. She went looking for a cannabis chamber to join, and in her words, it basically did not exist in the way she expected. So she built it.

She also made a clear distinction that stuck with me. There are organizations in New Jersey doing important policy work. The Chamber’s focus is commerce. The mission is to help businesses make more money, and one of the fastest ways to do that is to put the right people in the same room and make introductions that actually matter.

A lot of “industry events” are expensive hangouts with weak follow-through. Conway’s trying to do the opposite.

She told me one of the Chamber’s early proof points was an event called Secure the Bag, which brought together cannabis entrepreneurs who needed capital and investors, including non-traditional investors. Conway’s point was simple. The right conversation can change the trajectory of a business. She said people left that event and later opened dispensaries because of who they met.

That is not hype. That is economic development with a face.

Beth also talked about a bigger vision for events that I think Jersey needs more of. She wants multi-chamber collaboration, not isolated cannabis bubbles. If a Chamber event lands in a town, she wants to invite the local chamber and bring non-cannabis business owners into the mix.

Her reasoning is obvious once you hear it. A dispensary owner needs plumbers, fencing, pest control, security, finance, marketing, POS, signage, and buildout help. Those vendors are also consumers and community stakeholders. When those circles overlap, cannabis becomes less of a weird outlier industry and more of what it actually is: a local business.

She also structures sponsorships to avoid that awkward conference sales energy. Sponsors can invite dispensary owners and budtenders to ensure decision-makers are in the room. It becomes a non-sales touchpoint. A brand can say, “We’re showing up. Your ticket is on us. Let’s talk like humans.”

That is how trust gets built here.

Conway made it clear she’s Jersey through and through, born and raised at the Shore. She also looks at markets through a consumer lens, not just an operator lens. She talked about traveling for work, landing in California, and immediately pulling up delivery apps, and how different the consumer experience can be across states.

Her bigger point was about culture. New Jersey is a trust market. You do not get automatic respect because you have a logo and a pitch deck. You earn it. People here can tell when someone is trying to “swoop in” with an out-of-state playbook and sell a solution without understanding the ground truth.

Conway said there’s grit here. I agree. And as the market matures and prices compress, grit becomes a competitive advantage. The brands and operators who survive are those that can execute under pressure.

Now, let’s talk about the part that should have every serious operator paying attention.

The High Times Cannabis Cup is officially coming to New Jersey, and pre-registration is live for brands, retailers, judges, and sponsors.

This market is ready for a real spotlight moment. Not a legalization victory lap. A quality moment. A credibility moment. A moment where New Jersey gets to show what it can produce, what it can build, and which brands actually deserve to rise.

If you’ve been grinding quietly, dialing in the product, building relationships the hard way, and doing it with real intention, this is your shot to step forward.

New Jersey cannabis is getting real. Beth Conway and Brendan Robinson built a Chamber that matches that reality.

Now it’s time to celebrate it.

And it starts with the Cup.