Laid off from The Cannabist Company.

What The Cannabist Company layoffs have meant for employees

If you worked in a grow room or on a production line, the count in the five-state Vireo sale is the number to look at. It was expected to add up to 25 dispensaries but one cultivation site and one production asset, NJBIZ reported. A July court affidavit said the locations Vireo wouldn't take were generally unprofitable retail or cultivation sites, and that the company had started staff reductions at them and was moving them back to landlords. In a Vireo state, then, a buyer for the state wasn't always a buyer for your building. Side sales of locations left out of the main deals preserved about 65 jobs across four stores, a September court filing says.

If your site did go to a buyer, what you could count on changed deal by deal. Delaware's buyer was to take over unused vacation and paid time off and credit prior service for people who moved, per the company's first-day court filing. Any Vireo offer had to keep base pay at its old level or better. If you didn't move to Vireo, its terms left liabilities for non-transferred employees with the sellers. If you moved with Ohio's sale, which closed September 2, and were handed a release of claims, the sale terms called for the old employer to seek one from each transferred worker.

The pay record comes in pieces. In March the company swore it was current on wages and 401(k) contributions, with about $2.14 million in vacation pay accrued at the end of 2025. Denver's notice letter covered the 60 days before closing. Those are single dates in a long wind-down, so if your last check left something out, the court-appointed Monitor, FTI Consulting Canada, is worth having on your list.

Union status split the same way in New Jersey. The March filing puts UFCW Local 152 at a Vineland cultivation facility and Local 360 at the Deptford dispensary. Vineland's grow sites got the layoff notice, and Deptford is one of three New Jersey stores in the Vireo sale, so two locals in one state landed on opposite sides of it. Local 338's Brooklyn dispensary sat in the New York market the company wound down.

None of this began in 2026. Headcount fell by about half from the 2,505 employees counted at the end of 2022 to February 2026. Sold businesses sit inside that drop, so it measures how far the company shrank, not how many were laid off. Saxton, run by subsidiary Green Leaf Medicals, shows the slower version. The Morrisons Cove Herald says the plant launched with roughly 100 employees in 2019 on a promise of 500 more jobs that never came, shed 73 workers early in 2023 and had 52 jobs left to lose. In court, the company blamed oversupply from illicit dealers and too many licensed competitors.

Sales in the five Vireo states and Maryland were still waiting on state regulators in September. If your site was included in Vireo's purchase, the agreement allowed an offer as late as five business days before that market's closing, a short runway for weighing your pay, leave balance and benefit dates. If your job ended at Saxton, Denver or Vineland, Pennsylvania, Colorado and New Jersey each have their own unemployment rules, and the Monitor's case site posts the court's orders as the sales close.

A sourced history of The Cannabist Company layoffs

• July 2026, Vineland cultivation sites

  The company told New Jersey's labor department it was eliminating 86 positions at two Vineland cultivation sites, effective October 11, per NJBIZ. The Vireo deal summary left a leased Vineland cultivation facility with the seller.

• July 2026, Denver cultivation and manufacturing closing

  A July 14 letter to Colorado said the facility at 4410 and 4420 Washington Street would close September 11, expected to be permanent, separating all 50 employees. They'd keep base pay and benefits through the 60-day notice period, it said, with no bumping rights.

• February 2026, New York and Pennsylvania wind-downs

  With no actionable sale for New York and an uneconomic Pennsylvania cultivation facility, the company sent WARN notices February 17, intending to terminate staff by April 18, a March 2026 court filing says. Subsidiary Green Leaf Medicals' notice put Saxton's closing at April 18 and 52 jobs, per the Morrisons Cove Herald.

• 2024 to 2025, headcount cuts and state exits

  The company cut overall headcount for what a March 2026 court filing called tens of millions of annual savings, while selling its Florida, Washington D.C. and California operations and its Pennsylvania business other than a cultivation facility.

• July 2023, final restructuring phase

  The company announced the last phase of its corporate restructuring on July 31, a cut of about 52 overhead heads, per its FY2023 10-K.

• January 2023, stores, cultivation and corporate overhead

  Columbia Care announced January 19 it would close four unprofitable dispensaries, consolidate cultivation and cut corporate overhead about 25%, per its FY2023 10-K.

• Early 2023, Saxton plant layoffs

  Green Leaf Medicals, listed as a subsidiary in the 2026 court filings, laid off 73 Saxton workers, the Morrisons Cove Herald reported, with leadership citing market volatility and a lack of legislative progress on legalization.

• December 2022, California closure notice

  PHC Facilities, listed on the company's 2026 organizational chart, filed a 68-job California closure notice dated December 28, 2022, our tracker shows.

What to do if you're laid off from The Cannabist Company

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. The Cannabist Company's biggest hubs: Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what The Cannabist Company's hub states run: Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.