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GILLIAN HECK
Berkshire Business Journal MARCH 2025 | VOL. 4, NO. 3
Has cannabis crashed?
ABOVE: STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN | BELOW: BEN GARVER — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Above: Employees ring out a rush of customers recently at Theory Wellness in Great Barrington. In Massachusetts, where there are more than 700 establishments selling cannabis, prices are entering a third consecutive year of free-fall. Below: A cannabis flower grows under grow lamps at Berkshire Roots in Pittsfield. Berkshire Roots, Theory Wellness and Canna Provisions all have some level of vertical integration — growing and manufacturing the products they then sell at retail.
Plunging prices and regulatory hurdles a reality check for once-heady industry By Greg Sukiennik The Berkshire Eagle
When Massachusetts became the first New England state to legalize adult retail cannabis sales in 2016, it set in motion a gold rush. Border areas such as the Berkshires saw long lines, parking lots full of out-ofstate license plates and a proliferation of entrepreneurs seeking to cash in. Brandon Pollock, CEO of Theory Wellness in Great Barrington, said customers drove to his store from as far away as New Jersey. It seemed like a license to print money. “We had a lot more demand than supply in the state being the only East Coast
recreational market, and that imbalance of supply and demand led to very, very high pricing,” Pollock said. “When pricing is that high, other investors say, ‘Hey, you know, maybe I should build out one of these grow sites. The pricing is so good.’” But now the price is a fraction of that amount, and New York and every New England state but New Hampshire allows legal recreational sales — meaning border traffic is a much smaller slice of the market. “Too many people had the same idea at the same time, I guess,” Pollock said, “and now we’re in a situation where we are extremely oversupplied in that product.” CANNABIS, Page 10