260+ Dispensaries, 5 Lounges: Why Is It So Hard to Smoke Legally in Jersey?

On October 2, The Lounge at Xena opened in Jersey City's McGinley Square. It's Jersey City's first cannabis consumption lounge, and only the fifth in the entire state. We have over 260 dispensaries in New Jersey and five places where you can legally sit down and smoke with other people. Let's talk about why.

Where you can actually go right now

• High Rollers, Atlantic City (in the Claridge on the boardwalk)
• SunnyTien, Atlantic City
• URB'N, Newark
• Gynsyng, Merchantville
• The Lounge at Xena, Jersey City

The first four opened in summer 2025. Xena is the first new one in over a year.

A year of open applications, one new lounge

Lounges rolled out in phases. Social equity businesses could apply starting January 2025, diversely owned businesses in April, and as of July 2, 2025, every licensed dispensary in the state was allowed to apply. So it's been over a year of open eligibility, and we went from four to five.

What's slowing it down

1. Your town has to say yes first. A dispensary needs local approval before it can even apply to the state. A lot of towns barely tolerated dispensaries in the first place, so a room where people smoke inside is a much harder sell at a council meeting.

2. Local boards can stall everything. Xena's owner applied in January 2025 as a social equity business. Back then, Jersey City's own cannabis control board wasn't even meeting, which held things up. He called the whole process a "crazy struggle." SunnyTien said they waited almost 16 months.

3. The buildout is expensive. Lounges need serious ventilation so smoke and smell don't hit the neighbors, and they have to be hidden from public view. That's real construction money on top of running a dispensary in a market where prices keep dropping.

4. The business model is tough. Lounges can't sell food or alcohol, and no tobacco is allowed. You can bring your own food, order delivery, or grab something from a food truck outside, but the lounge can't make money on any of that. Rec customers usually have to buy their weed from that same dispensary, and opened products can't leave.

5. Fees and limits. It's $1,000 to apply, then $1,000 a year for a microbusiness or $5,000 for a standard license. Each operator only gets one lounge, no matter how many stores they own.

Why it matters

Legal weed doesn't mean much if you have nowhere legal to smoke it. Renters, people in apartments with no-smoking leases, tourists, and anyone living with kids or family who don't smoke basically have no option. Public consumption is still illegal, and police have been writing summonses for it.

Lounges are also the closest thing NJ has to the culture side of cannabis: sessions, events, meeting people. Xena's planning puff and paint, karaoke, and comedy nights. That's what legalization was supposed to feel like.

What would help

• Towns that already allow dispensaries could pre-approve lounges instead of making each one fight its own battle
• Letting lounges sell food or partner with kitchens would make the business actually work
• Letting people bring their own legal flower from any NJ dispensary would bring in way more customers

Another Jersey City lounge, The Other Side in the Heights, already has city approval, so number six might not be far off. I'll keep this list updated as more open.

Sources

• The Lounge at Xena to open (Jersey Digs)
• Xena grand opening (Hudson County View)
• First cannabis consumption lounges open in NJ (MJBizDaily)
• First 4 cannabis lounges open in NJ (FOX 29)
• NJ opens consumption endorsements to all retailers (Vicente LLP)
• NJ consumption lounge rules (WOBM)
• Jersey City approves The Other Side lounge (Jersey Digs)