MSO Cannabist/Columbia Care Filing for Bankruptcy
The large Multi-State Operator (MSO) Columbia Care/The Cannabist is preparing to go bankrupt and sell all of their assets.
According to the Cannabis Business Times, they are selling assets in many states, including New Jersey! But it’s unclear who is buying them and how it will affect their New Jersey assets.
MSO Cannabist Assets Being Divided
They are planning to “sell certain equity interests in and assets of subsidiaries engaged in the business of producing, manufacturing, distributing and selling cannabis in the states of Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, West Virginia, Massachusetts, and Maryland.” Holistic Industries is buying their Ohio assets. They’re an MSO made bigger by this.
Parma Holdco LLC is buying their Delaware assets. According to the Cannabist release, they are “an affiliate of a Boston-based (Securities Exchange Commission) SEC-registered investment fund with a portfolio of investment in the US cannabis industry.”
Their locations and products are likely to be rebranded sooner than later at this rate.
This is good news for those who don’t like corporate MSOs. The catch is that their assets and market share will go to an MSO rather than benefiting small businesses.
Columbia Care/The Cannabist is one of the MSO corporations named in the Ohio Attorney General’s lawsuit alleging a cartel/trust of MSOs harming the market at the expense of consumers and small businesses. They allege it is a national conspiracy too.
The Cannabist, Columbia Care, and New Jersey
The Cannabist has been very active in New Jersey with a few dispensaries in South Jersey. They also produce the following product brands:
Seed & Strain
Triple 7
Amber
Hedy gummies (Not to be confused with Heady NJ)
Dreamt sleep gummies
They bought one of the six original NJ medical cannabis Alternative Treatment Center (ATC) licenses. That one license included three dispensary locations, along with permission to cultivate, manufacture, wholesale, and transport legal cannabis. So they were among the MSOs that opened for legal NJ adult-use cannabis sales first in April 2022 in their Vineland and Deptford dispensaries.
The Cannabist dispensary workers in Deptford in Gloucester County in South Jersey voted to unionize in July 2023. The NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) fined CC due to Labor Peace Agreement (LPA) violations in September 2023
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The MSO Cresco Labs announced it was going to buy Columbia Care in March 2022. But then the deal fell apart in July 2023.
Their Vineland location opened in June 2020. Their third location in Mays Landing was allowed to expand to selling adult-use cannabis dispensaries by the CRC in April 2025. The Cannabist Mays Landing opened in January 2025.
They supported the local Black woman-owned ButACake edible company with a production deal before they had the means to open their own manufacturing facility in Monmouth County. Veda had a similar deal to make oil and creams.
