Is Massachusetts adult-use marijuana market being propped up by New Yorkers?

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Customers making the trek from nearby New York are responsible for as much as 50% of recreational marijuana sales so far in Massachusetts, according to reporting by Crain’s New York Business.

In Great Barrington, a town on Massachusetts’ western edge that’s only a one-hour drive from Albany and less than three hours from New York City, Theory Wellness has hit $11 million in sales in five months. About half of those sales are credited to New Yorkers.

“You see folks from New York City doing aggressive carpooling, with four or five people packed into a (vehicle),” Theory CEO Brandon Pollock told Crain’s.

Pollock estimated that Theory has been receiving about 1,000 customers a day, and sales have been double what he had expected.

Although New Yorkers are the biggest out-of-state customer demographic, plenty of consumers have visited from Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other nearby states that don’t have legal marijuana shops.