New Jersey’s cannabis market leads the nation in social equity licensing, but the majority of license holders are still waiting to open their doors.
That’s the key takeaway from a new Q1 2025 benchmark report released by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which shows that nearly half of all cannabis licensees in the state are minority-owned.
According to the report, 48% of cannabis licensees identify as minority-owned, while 44% are women or disabled veteran-owned. Both figures far exceed New Jersey’s 15% benchmark for equity participation. Compared to national averages — 19% for minority-owned businesses and 16% for women-owned— New Jersey appears to be outperforming most of the country in ownership diversity.
The strong equity numbers also extend to microbusinesses. These smaller operations, designed to lower the barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs, account for 35% of all license holders statewide. That’s 10% above the state’s target. Among specific license types, 62% of delivery licenses are microbusinesses, along with 36% of retailers and 37% of cultivators.
However, despite the positive ownership data, the majority of license holders are not yet operational. As of mid-June, only 221 cannabis businesses were actively licensed under the state’s CREAMM Act. The rest—approximately 89% of total licensees—hold only conditional licenses, a temporary status meant to give applicants time to secure property, capital, and local approvals. That 89% figure is more than 50% higher than the 35% conditional license benchmark, raising questions about how many of these businesses will be able to make the jump to full operations.
Ownership demographics among annual license awardees paint a more complicated picture. Of the 691 licensees who have reached annual status, 32% are white-majority owned. Black ownership represents 17%, while Asian ownership accounts for 12%. Another 12% identify as “other or not listed,” and 14% reported no majority ownership. Only 12% of annual awardees are Hispanic or Latino-majority owned.
The numbers are similar among operational businesses. Of the 221 licensed businesses currently up and running, 47% are white-owned, 15% are Black-owned, 11% are Asian-owned, and 16% are Hispanic or Latino-majority owned. Just 14% of these businesses qualify as social equity operators, and only 11% are owned by individuals with prior marijuana convictions — two categories that New Jersey’s cannabis law explicitly seeks to prioritize.
The certification landscape for operational businesses shows some progress, but also reflects gaps. About 28.5% of operational licensees hold Women Business Enterprise (WBE) certification. Another 19.9% are certified Minority Business Enterprises (MBE), while 17.2% hold both MBE and WBE certifications. Only 4.1% are certified as Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (DVOB), and nearly 28% of operational businesses have no certification at all.
While the state continues to exceed its benchmarks on paper, the low number of fully operational businesses raises concerns among advocates.
