Cannabis consumers certainly had a “stock-up” mentality on the East Coast during the approach of Winter Storm Fern. As the storm’s arrival became imminent, cannabis was treated as an essential “staple” alongside food and water.
New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts showed sustained elevated demand, maintaining strong double-digit lifts on Friday and Saturday when compared to an average Jan or Feb Friday and Saturday. In New York, while neither Friday or Saturday before the storm outperformed Green Wednesday, the Friday/Saturday weekend totals rivaled Green Wednesday and Black Friday total sales. In New Jersey, Friday outpaced both Green Wednesday and the top selling days of 420 weekend in 2025.
Maryland and Connecticut showed the most dramatic late-week response, with sales more than doubling (102% and 121% lifts, respectively) compared to their January Friday & Saturday averages.
Connecticut stands out as the major outlier in timing. While other states saw a pre-storm “lift” as early as Friday, Connecticut actually experienced a 15% dip that day before skyrocketing on Saturday. This suggests a much more condensed and urgent shopping window for consumers compared to their neighbors.
We’ll see in the coming weeks if these hauls were consumed, or if we see an abnormal drop off as consumers use their stocked up stash.
Originally published in the Cultivated Media newsletter.


