Up Early! LoveBabz Lovetalk Welcomes Rino Ferrarese President, Affinity Grow

April 17, 2026·23 min·2 clips

Smoke shops sell unverified cannabis, and Ferrarese ties that to ER visits and traceability gaps.

1. WNHH Community Radio's "Up Early! LoveBabz Lovetalk" uses Rino Ferrarese's visit to examine Connecticut cannabis pricing, regulation, and retail access. 2. LoveBabz, host of the show, interviews Rino Ferrarese, president of Affinity Grow, a Connecticut operator that grows, extracts, sells, and distributes cannabis. 3. The episode is trying to answer whether Connecticut's legal cannabis system can pull buyers away from smoke shops and the unregulated market without loosening safety rules. 4. Ferrarese says the legal market is improving and prices are coming down, but he still puts legal participation at about 20% of regular consumption. 5. He argues that Connecticut's THC-milligram tax structure keeps taxes high even when stores discount flower, so a sale price does not always lower the tax bill. 6. He says an eighth priced at $40 can carry roughly a 22% to 23% tax, which makes legal cannabis expensive at checkout. 7. Smoke shops, he says, compete by selling product from unknown sources, and he warns that buyers cannot tell how those products were grown or processed. 8. Ferrarese links that uncertainty to chronic hyperemesis syndrome and says some emergency-room cases may be misread as ordinary overuse. 9. He says legal cannabis is safer because Connecticut requires licensed-lab testing and Department of Consumer Protection tracking from manufacture through sale. 10. He says the state has roughly 75 to 78 dispensaries, yet many residents still do not know the program exists. 11. He describes Connecticut dispensaries as a "best kept secret" because advertising is tightly limited and it is hard to guarantee that 80% to 90% of viewers are 21 or older. 12. He compares the shopping experience to the "Blockbuster model," where customers cannot browse open shelves and have to work from packaged inventory. 13. He says adult-use sales began in January 2023 and the packaging became more restricted, with a Walgreens-like white label and only limited branding. 14. Ferrarese says legislators have been supportive because they must balance business growth, tax revenue, and public protection. 15. He expects some meaningful movement on marketing and packaging rules this year, including the possibility of a few more colors on labels. 16. He says Connecticut and New York launched adult-use at roughly the same time, but New York quickly crossed $1 billion in sales while Connecticut stayed around $290 million. 17. He credits Connecticut's early seed-to-sale tracking for keeping every product in-state and giving regulators minute-by-minute visibility inside his facility. 18. Ferrarese says Affinity Grow's Portland building cost about $5 million to buy and another $1 million to renovate, before payroll and utilities. 19. The interview is conversational and early-morning, with the host pressing Ferrarese on taxes, IDs, smoke shops, and enforcement. 20. People interested in Connecticut cannabis policy, dispensary economics, and state regulation will get the most from it.

As heard by us

Rino makes Connecticut's legal cannabis system clearer through testing, traceability, and tighter retail rules.

Connecticut's legal cannabis program gets a grounded stress test in a morning conversation with Rino. He notes better prices and broader participation, then moves to the central problem: routine consumers still buy only about 20 percent of their supply through the state's legal…

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Why you'd press play

You get an early, conversational check-in on Connecticut cannabis: prices coming down, low legal-market participation, lab testing, traceability, and a simple smoke-shop sign idea.

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