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?

I have always had a deep-seated desire to help others and make people’s lives better. I have also always been a natural educator and initially majored in Math education for my undergrad degree. I switched majors to psychology at the end of my freshman year because I loved learning about psychology so much; I was so fascinated by people and why they think and behave in the ways they do. My mother earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and had established a very fulfilling career in Human Resources, so I knew that I could find really meaningful 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 and in every position, I ended up working in prevention. Education and harm-reduction became a core 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 how demoralizing and dehumanizing seeking treatment can be for most people. There is so much shame and stigma wrapped up in addiction treatment of all kinds. One of the first times I remember 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 inherent shame and stigma that came along with those references and I was also starting to resent the terminology around cannabis being a “gateway drug,” because I had a deep sense that the only 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 and often deeply empathetic individuals who were desperately trying to self-medicate their own pain. In my personal life, I could very easily see that not every person who consumes substances becomes an addict, but so many people who misuse or abuse substances in an effort to escape pain do. And that realization over time began to re-shape the way I viewed all substances, 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 to me has been what a true honor it is to be invited into others’ lives, homes, and family dynamics and trusted to “capture” the magic of those precious moments. It can be a very vulnerable 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 fully comprehended until many years after the event. When children have grown, loved ones have passed, and so much about their lives has changed; that is when many of my clients reach out 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 time would have to be the ability to quickly establish rapport with people I have never met so that they feel comfortable enough around me to let their authentic selves shine through in a 2-dimensional image. Being photographed can be a vulnerable and intimate thing and the weight of that trust and comfort is never lost on me. I would say the second most valuable skill in business management I learned from running my own business for so long is the ability to put on so many different “hats” and the work ethic it requires to get all the jobs done well 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 the body) 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 the various routes of administration have been incredibly useful in my roles as a cannabis educator. 

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 of legitimacy to conscientious cannabis consumption as a respected modality of therapeutic intervention, and those who have the opportunity to obtain such degrees position themselves in a very unique way on the front lines of the destigmatization of this incredibly healing plant. Comprehensive education, ever-expanding clinical research, reparative social justice efforts/policy reform, access and patient advocacy, and continued destigmatization are some of the most important paths forward as far as university programs in cannabis can go from here. 

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?

I had been doing Cannabis Education in my supervisory role with the department of family medicine at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine for over 2 years. However, as New 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 in discussion about the potential harm that could befall the community to have poorly-educated consumers freely purchasing cannabis in the open adult-use cannabis market. Recognizing that dispensaries are essentially the gatekeepers or “pharmacists” who inform patients about the products they are purchasing, how to consume them in the safest or least-harmful ways for them, what (if any) polypharmacy concerns there may be with respect to any other medications they may be taking, etc., we felt that involvement with local dispensaries within our scope of influence could be a critical factor in the overall harm-reduction surrounding cannabis use in the general public. In this role, I utilize my experience as a small-business owner & operator, many skills from my years of health education and prevention work, and so much of my Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics Masters Degree from the University of Maryland 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 I manage a little bit of everything across the entire operation of our store; such as maintenance and operationality of the building itself, management of all of the staff (hiring, ongoing training, scheduling, HR issues, team-building, etc), execution of general operations, inventory handling (intake, auditing, compliance, etc), customer satisfaction, community engagement, etc. Something people never seem to consider about my job is how HIGHLY regulated the industry is as a whole and how hefty the fines are surrounding compliance infractions. Every single milligram of cannabis is closely tracked and monitored by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission every single step of the way from seed to sale, therefore maintaining strict adherence 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 the simple reason that it had many years to observe the rollout of the adult-use market in the west coast. NJ gave itself the chance to learn from the mistakes of its pioneering peers, as well as ride the coat-tails of all that was done well by other states. By the time they voted to legalize adult-use, there was overwhelming public support, strong political will, and a proactive 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, which allowed 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 with a higher net median income, which helps ensure a consistently well-funded local consumer base. 

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 as well as recognized and awarded within the industry itself. As word of mouth continues to grow, so too does the loyal BestBuds customer base. At our store, we are not simply making sales, we are creating an intentional community of people who feel that they truly belong. We are 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 ultimately set the bar for quality control, continued education & destigmatization of cannabis as medicine, 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 products and innovation; consumption lounges, an expanding beverage market, cannabis-infused foods/restaurants, etc. I think the next few years in the NJ cannabis market will also include continued market compression as the market continues to mature, the emergence of additional local cultivators that will hopefully result in a switch to local brands that begin to squeeze out the (now-dominant) MSO’s. More sophisticated consumer education will hopefully result in less discount-, volume-, or highest-THC-driven purchasing and instead cultivate greater loyalty to smaller neighborhood- and community-based retailers that offer the best quality products and the best retail experience. I also anticipate an increase in retailers, but also the beginning of the final emergence of the winners and losers in the long-term cannabis marketplace. I wholeheartedly believe BestBuds will emerge as a clear leader in the NJ cannabis market because it has always been a quiet leader behind-the-scenes in the NJ cannabis industry!

Thank you for joining us, Kristy! For more information on Best Buds, please visit its website.