As the cannabis market settles into maturity, professionals such as pharmacist and entrepreneur Mujjahid Huq are testing whether credibility, not image, will define who stays in business.
Walk through parts of Manhattan or Brooklyn today and you’ll see how cannabis retail has entered its lifestyle era. Many dispensaries look like they were designed for social media. Walls glow with color, product shelves mimic tech showrooms, and staff are trained to talk in the language of wellness and aspiration. For a while, that image worked. It helped normalize a new industry and made cannabis appear accessible.
But the market is shifting. Sales in New York have grown, yet competition is rising just as fast. Behind the branding, a quieter question is emerging: when the novelty fades, what will keep customers coming back?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, cannabis use among adults over 55 has doubled in the last five years. Many in this group are turning to cannabis to manage chronic pain, insomnia, or anxiety. They are less interested in branding and more concerned with trust, dosage, and guidance. For them, the average dispensary can feel disorienting.
That reality is not lost on Mujjahid Huq, a licensed pharmacist who has spent two decades running community pharmacies in New York. He believes the next wave of cannabis retail will have less to do with marketing and more to do with professionalism. “People don’t want to be sold to,” he says. “They want to be understood.”
Huq’s proposal is straightforward. He envisions dispensaries that operate more like healthcare environments, with staff who can advise on interactions and dosage rather than focus on upselling. His view is that a transparent, clinically informed model would reach consumers who are curious about cannabis but wary of the culture around it.
This argument fits into a larger conversation happening across the wellness and consumer health industries. Over the past decade, sectors from supplements to mental health apps have faced scrutiny for overpromising and underdelivering. Investors and regulators alike are now demanding proof of safety, transparency, and real benefit. Cannabis is beginning to feel those same pressures.
The trust issue is not abstract. The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer reported that more than seven in ten consumers lose confidence in a company when they believe profit outweighs people. For an industry still emerging from decades of stigma and inconsistent oversight, that perception carries real risk. If customers do not see dispensaries as credible, they will not see them as sustainable sources of care.
Huq’s idea sits somewhere between reform and realism. He is not proposing that every shop become a clinic, but he argues that the industry will not reach its potential without clinical discipline. His stance reflects a broader turn toward what some analysts call “ethical growth,” where businesses succeed by embedding responsibility into the core of their operations rather than treating it as marketing.
That shift is already visible in other corners of the economy. The most resilient wellness brands are those that educate their customers, disclose sourcing, and employ trained professionals. The same approach could define the next generation of cannabis retail. If the first wave of legalization was about access and the second about aesthetics, the third may be about accountability.
The transition will not happen overnight. Building trust takes time, and the market’s image problem is partly cultural. Yet as demographics evolve and regulation tightens, the conditions are aligning for a more grounded model to take root.
The cannabis industry has spent years selling the idea of cool. Its future may depend on learning how to sell care instead.
Disclaimer: This article contains sponsored marketing content. It is intended for promotional purposes and should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation by our website. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
