The Medicine Woman lasted just six months at 660 Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City and is now the subject of a breach of contract lawsuit. Image courtesy The Medicine Woman.
A Jersey City cannabis business that opened to much fanfare last summer suddenly shuttered earlier this month, and Jersey Digs has learned that a lawsuit over unpaid bills has been filed by the company’s landlord.
The Jersey City outpost of The Medicine Woman launched last April with a star-studded Grand Opening. Co-owner Ice-T attended the launch, as did Coco, Treach from Naughty by Nature, and actor Taylor Kinney, who is also an investor in The Medicine Woman, known for his role on NBC’s Chicago Fire.
The location was the second for The Medicine Woman after co-owner Charis Burrett opened the first store in California. Their Tonnelle Avenue facility spanned a whopping 5,000 square feet and offered a wide variety of cannabis products.
Ice-T and Taylor Kinney were among the attendees at the April 19 Grand Opening celebration. Image courtesy The Medicine Woman.
However, the business suddenly shuttered just after the new year and the matter has now spilled into Hudson County Superior Court. TMW 660 Tonnelle LLC, the owner of the property that housed The Medicine Woman, filed suit on January 7th against the company, claiming breach of contract.
Named as defendants in the case are The Medicine Woman LLC and Charis Burrett individually. Ice-T, whose real name is Tracy Marrow, is not listed as an individual defendant in the filing.
The case states that The Medicine Woman signed a ten-year lease in June 2024 and first failed to pay rent in December of last year. Besides the default, the lawsuit cites several additional unpaid taxes and water bills dating back to August, just four months after the dispensary’s opening.
All told, the lawsuit claims The Medicine Woman has $63,597.44 in unpaid bills. In addition, a $51,392.10 mechanic’s lien is alleged to have been filed against the property by Eyeson Digital Surveillance & Management Systems, which is the responsibility of the dispensary under the lease agreement.
The lawsuit says that as of the date of the filing, The Medicine Woman has yet to surrender the property to them after they sent the business a termination notice on January 6. The landlord is seeking damages for breach of contract and a declaratory judgment that the lease is null and void.
The dispensary issued a statement to NJ Advance Media late last week, where they placed some of the blame regarding the dispensary’s closure at the feet of the government.
“Despite significant investment, compliance, and readiness to launch, the lack of local oversight and regulatory infrastructure undermined our ability to grow and sustain operations, effectively driving the operation into the ground before it ever even had a real chance to get started,” company officials told the outlet.