Kristy Straub, General Manager of Best Buds – Interview Series

While the New York cannabis industry and its economic potential dominate the headlines, experts often overlook the neighboring New Jersey market. Despite its smaller geographic footprint, New Jersey surpassed $1 billion in cannabis sales in 2025 and employs thousands of residents statewide. In fact, the Garden State offers distinct advantages and market strengths that the Empire State has yet to match.

To explore these unique opportunities, mycannabis.com sat down with Kristy Straub, General Manager of Best Buds.

Why did you first desire to work in social work, and what organizations have you worked for? Why did you feel that the objectives and missions of the organizations you worked with were meaningful in multiple ways?

Ihave always had a deep-seated desire to help others and make people’s lives better. I havealso always been a natural educator and initially majored in Math education for my undergraddegree. I switched majors to psychology at the end of my freshman year because I lovedlearning about psychology so much; I was so fascinated by people and why they think andbehave in the ways they do. My mother earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and hadestablished a very fulfilling career in Human Resources, so I knew that I could find reallymeaningful work helping others with a Psych degree, no matter what I ended up doing.Following graduation from Messiah University, I worked in several different organizations andin every position, I ended up working in prevention. Education and harm-reduction became acore tenant of my emerging career.

How did your career in social work provide you with a better understanding of how detrimental previous cannabis policies/laws were? How did you personally witness how damaging those policies were during your time with those organizations?

What I witnessed overall during each of my roles in prevention and treatment was howdemoralizing and dehumanizing seeking treatment can be for most people. There is so muchshame and stigma wrapped up in addiction treatment of all kinds. One of the first times Iremember becoming skeptical of cannabis policy was when I continued to hear the terms“clean” and “dirty” in reference to cannabis drug testing. I never appreciated the inherentshame and stigma that came along with those references and I was also starting to resentthe terminology around cannabis being a “gateway drug,” because I had a deep sense that theonly true “gateway drug” is pain; trauma, mental health struggles, anxiety/depression, etc –what I saw in my professional experience over and over again was extremely sensitive andoften deeply empathetic individuals who were desperately trying to self-medicate their ownpain. In my personal life, I could very easily see that not every person who consumessubstances becomes an addict, but so many people who misuse or abuse substances in aneffort to escape pain do. And that realization over time began to re-shape the way I viewed allsubstances, as well as my approach to addiction and prevention.

What have been some of the most memorable events that you attended/photographed with Syllipsi Photography? What were the most valuable skills in business management that you strengthened during that time?

Over the course of nearly 20 years of professional photography, what has always stood out tome has been what a true honor it is to be invited into others’ lives, homes, and familydynamics and trusted to “capture” the magic of those precious moments. It can be a veryvulnerable thing to ask a stranger to do for you and often times, the real value and the weight

of the sentimental significance of those images that have captured such intimate moments,special memories, and the precious bonds between people are not even realized or fullycomprehended until many years after the event. When children have grown, loved ones havepassed, and so much about their lives has changed; that is when many of my clients reachout to me, communicating a newfound appreciation and deep gratitude for the gift of frozen time that I was able to give to them. 

I think the most valuable skills in business management that I strengthened during that timewould have to be the ability to quickly establish rapport with people I have never met so thatthey feel comfortable enough around me to let their authentic selves shine through in a2-dimensional image. Being photographed can be a vulnerable and intimate thing and theweight of that trust and comfort is never lost on me. I would say the second most valuableskill in business management I learned from running my own business for so long is theability to put on so many different “hats” and the work ethic it requires to get all the jobs donewell because nobody else is coming behind me to make sure everything is done right.

While obtaining your Master’s degree at the University of Maryland, what subjects in medical cannabis science did you mainly study? What were the most useful courses that you took as part of the degree plan?

The lion’s share of our study focused on the pharmacodynamics (what a drug does to thebody) and pharmacokinetics (what the body does to a drug) of cannabis in the human body.Learning all about the human endocannabinoid system (ECS), mechanisms of action,dose-response, efficacy & toxicity, absorption/distribution/metabolism/excretion, and all thevarious routes of administration have been incredibly useful in my roles as a cannabiseducator.

Why do you think it’s special on a grand scale that there are now Master’s degree programs in cannabis studies? Where do you think cannabis university programs in cannabis can go from here?

Advanced degrees in the study of cannabis science and therapeutics bring a great deal oflegitimacy to conscientious cannabis consumption as a respected modality of therapeuticintervention, and those who have the opportunity to obtain such degrees position themselvesin a very unique way on the front lines of the destigmatization of this incredibly healing plant.Comprehensive education, ever-expanding clinical research, reparative social justiceefforts/policy reform, access and patient advocacy, and continued destigmatization are someof the most important paths forward as far as university programs in cannabis can go fromhere.

What caught your attention about the Cannabis Educator role with BestBuds? How did the role utilize your experience in social work and your Master’s degree from the University of Maryland?

Ihad been doing Cannabis Education in my supervisory role with the department of familymedicine at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine for over 2 years. However, asNew Jersey transitioned from Medical Cannabis law to Adult Use Recreational Cannabis law,some of my fellow cannabis masters program alumni and I began routinely engaging indiscussion about the potential harm that could befall the community to have poorly-educatedconsumers freely purchasing cannabis in the open adult-use cannabis market. Recognizingthat dispensaries are essentially the gatekeepers or “pharmacists” who inform patients aboutthe products they are purchasing, how to consume them in the safest or least-harmful waysfor them, what (if any) polypharmacy concerns there may be with respect to any othermedications they may be taking, etc., we felt that involvement with local dispensaries withinour scope of influence could be a critical factor in the overall harm-reduction surroundingcannabis use in the general public. In this role, I utilize my experience as a small-businessowner & operator, many skills from my years of health education and prevention work, and somuch of my Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics Masters Degree from the University ofMaryland School of Pharmacy every single day.

What are your regular duties as General Manager of BestBuds, and what are some parts of the job that some people might not even consider?

My regular duties as General Manager of BestBuds are very much as they sound in that Imanage a little bit of everything across the entire operation of our store; such as maintenanceand operationality of the building itself, management of all of the staff (hiring, ongoingtraining, scheduling, HR issues, team-building, etc), execution of general operations, inventoryhandling (intake, auditing, compliance, etc), customer satisfaction, community engagement,etc. Something people never seem to consider about my job is how HIGHLY regulated theindustry is as a whole and how hefty the fines are surrounding compliance infractions. Everysingle milligram of cannabis is closely tracked and monitored by the Cannabis RegulatoryCommission every single step of the way from seed to sale, therefore maintaining strictadherence to our compliance standards at all times is of utmost importance.

What advantages do you think the New Jersey cannabis industry has over other neighboring state markets? Why do you think the New Jersey market has those advantages to begin with?

What better a state to experience a booming cannabis market than the Garden State itself?As I understand it, the east coast has an advantage over the west coast market, for thesimple reason that it had many years to observe the rollout of the adult-use market in thewest coast. NJ gave itself the chance to learn from the mistakes of its pioneering peers, aswell as ride the coat-tails of all that was done well by other states. By the time they voted tolegalize adult-use, there was overwhelming public support, strong political will, and aproactive framework for regulation due to NJ’s early established medical-use program,making the transition into a new regulatory framework for the CRC very efficient, whichallowed for rapid industry expansion. Additionally, the east coast and specifically New Jersey

(the most densely-populated state in the nation) also tend to be more densely-populated witha higher net median income, which helps ensure a consistently well-funded local consumerbase.

What are some exciting upcoming plans that BestBuds has? And what do you think the next few years hold for the New Jersey cannabis market?

BestBuds has been lauded as a retailer for its phenomenal customer service by customers aswell as recognized and awarded within the industry itself. As word of mouth continues togrow, so too does the loyal BestBuds customer base. At our store, we are not simply makingsales, we are creating an intentional community of people who feel that they truly belong. Weare taking the time to educate the masses every single day to create empowered consumers.Educated and empowered consumers are a force to be reckoned with, as they will ultimatelyset the bar for quality control, continued education & destigmatization of cannabis asmedicine, demand for ongoing clinical research, and expanding social equity across the entire spectrum, all of which will shape the future infrastructure of the industry on the whole. 

I think the next few years in the NJ cannabis market will bring about exciting new productsand innovation; consumption lounges, an expanding beverage market, cannabis-infusedfoods/restaurants, etc. I think the next few years in the NJ cannabis market will also includecontinued market compression as the market continues to mature, the emergence ofadditional local cultivators that will hopefully result in a switch to local brands that begin tosqueeze out the (now-dominant) MSO’s. More sophisticated consumer education willhopefully result in less discount-, volume-, or highest-THC-driven purchasing and instead cultivate greater loyalty to smaller neighborhood- and community-based retailers that offerthe best quality products and the best retail experience. I also anticipate an increase inretailers, but also the beginning of the final emergence of the winners and losers in thelong-term cannabis marketplace. I wholeheartedly believe BestBuds will emerge as a clearleader in the NJ cannabis market because it has always been a quiet leaderbehind-the-scenes in the NJ cannabis industry!