West Orange Weed Entrepreneurs Celebrate A ‘Win For The Underdog’

WEST ORANGE, NJ — According to Corey Dishmen and Charles Penn of New Jersey, they’re just two “regular guys” with a dollar and a dream. But that can get you pretty far when you factor in some elbow grease and determination, they say.

Dishmen and Penn are the owners of The Library, a proposed recreational cannabis dispensary in West Orange that gained a key letter of support from the town council last week. The resolution of support takes them a huge step closer to their dream of opening a Black-owned cannabusiness – and it hasn’t come easy.

Along with the recent awarding of a coveted microbusiness license from the state, The Library has nailed down two of the most difficult requirements to opening a cannabis business in New Jersey. There are still some remaining hurdles to jump, noted Dishmen, a West Orange resident. They include submitting their conversion application to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC), and submitting site plans and renderings to West Orange zoning officials for their planned location at 24 Park Avenue.

But now – more than two-and-a-half years after launching The Library – Dishmen and Penn are on the brink of realizing their longtime ambition of opening an “upscale, sophisticated environment” that will be friendly to middle-aged and elderly people … many of whom haven’t toked a joint since the 1970s.

Educating their customers about how marijuana has changed over the past few decades is a key part of the plan at The Library, where the concept of “community” is the highest power, the local entrepreneurs say. The concept of family is also important; Dishmen’s father serves as the company’s COO. And according to Penn – who grew up in Maplewood and South Orange – the desire to “build a legacy” for his children “beyond where I’m at right now” is one of the reasons why he’s worked so hard over the past few years.

Both businessmen are also hoping to do right by the many industry peers who have told them that they’re inspirational to “people who look like us,” Penn said during last week’s town council meeting in West Orange.

“This was a win for the underdog,” Dishmen told Patch. “We worked tirelessly for two and a half years but now the real work can begin. We are just super geared up to begin servicing the community on a much greater scale than ever before.”

Watch the council discuss The Library's application during their Oct. 25 meeting below (video is cued to Dishmen and Penn's comments).

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THE NUTS AND BOLTS

According to the town’s evaluation report, The Library submitted its application for a resolution of support to West Orange in July 2022. It was awarded a conditional license that allowed it to move forward in the process. After some delays due to a lack of corporate formation documents and a back-and-forth with the township over the initial proposed location at 78 Ashland Avenue, The Library earned its resolution of support last week.

The Library’s West Orange location will be organized as a “microbusiness,” which means it will have to follow certain rules laid out by the state:

• Have no more than 10 employees at one time
• Have a physical plant of no more than 2,500 square feet; and in the case of a cannabis cultivator, the canopy height cannot be more than 24 feet
• Possess no more than 1,000 mature cannabis plants each month (cannabis distributors are exempt)
• Acquire no more than 1,000 pounds of usable cannabis (or the equivalent amount in other forms) each month

The proposed location has a two-story office building with a parking lot also located on the property. The building also has an attached garage located at the back of the parking area.

The Library has also addressed questions and concerns regarding the environmental innovations it intended to implement in its operations to minimize the amount of waste generated in operations and the security measures it intended to implement at the proposed location, according to the town’s evaluation report.

• See related article: NJ Weed Businesses Don't Hurt Home Values – And May Even Help, Study Says

According to Dishmen and Penn, national cannabis dispensary operator AYR Wellness was an initial investor in the business, but do not have any ownership or operational control of the facility in West Orange. This facet of the business was addressed at the Oct. 25 council meeting (watch the video below, cued to that section of the meeting).

• See related article: Education Can't Trump Lack Of Capital For Black Business: NJ Advocate

LACK OF MINORITY REPRESENTATION

Before the state began issuing retail licenses to cannabis businesses, many advocates had expressed concern about the lack of minority representation in New Jersey’s existing legal weed industry, including its medical marijuana dispensaries.

They included the owners of The Library.

The pair didn’t quite concur with January allegations from the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, which asserted that out of 56 cannabis licenses awarded up to that point, none had gone to Black-owned companies. It was a statement backed by U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., who represents towns including West Orange – although state officials with the NJCRC adamantly denied the accusation.

• See related article: NJ Denies It Hasn't Licensed A Black Owner Since Legalizing Weed

Dishmen and Penn told Patch they couldn’t verify the chamber’s allegations, although they supported the general idea that there is a severe lack of representation when it comes to the cannabis industry. But there is no denying that New Jersey has a checkered history when it comes to social justice and marijuana, they added.

New Jersey voters approved recreational cannabis in a landmark November 2020 ballot question. Read More: 5 Things You Need To Know About Marijuana Legalization In NJ

Part of the effort was aimed at correcting injustices of the past, including the state’s longtime racial disparity in weed arrests and the toll it has taken on minority communities. As late as 2017, New Jersey was averaging 95 marijuana possession arrests per day, or nearly one arrest every 15 minutes. The ACLU-NJ said that – as in previous years – Black people stood almost a 3-to-1 higher chance of being arrested on a marijuana charge in New Jersey than white people that year.

• See related article: 'It's Hard To Move Forward,' Says NJ Father Arrested For Weed

This social justice component of the cannabis industry – the drive to combat the harm done in the name of the Drug War – has inspired Dishmen and Penn to take action. While they waited for the state’s licensing process to open in 2021, the pair spearheaded an expungement clinic at the Cambria Hotel in West Orange to help people with prior cannabis-related charges learn how to start the process of clearing their records. And in March, Dishmen and Penn were among the hosts of a virtual Town Hall that discussed social equity in the cannabis industry.

• See related article: West Orange Man Wants To Bring Marijuana Shop To His Hometown

While New Jersey lawmakers drafted the legislation that laid the framework for legal recreational marijuana in the state, advocates pressed them to use the opportunity to create wealth in the very communities that had seen the most harm done. And according to state officials, they’ve been following through on the push to diversify the cannabis industry.

In March, the NJCRC approved 68 conditional license applications for recreational cannabis cultivators and manufacturers – the first recreational cannabis business applications to be approved in the state of New Jersey. Thirty-seven of the applicants have said they are certified diversely-owned businesses. Among those with majority stake in each business, 33 identified themselves as Black, nine Latinx and four Asian, officials noted.

Despite the gains in diversity in New Jersey, the cannabis industry still has a long way to go, Dishmen said at last week’s council meeting, highlighting their struggles as men of color “in this industry where there is less than 4 percent owned by people of color.”

• See related article: West Orange Marijuana Entrepreneurs Offer Tips For Job Seekers

CANNABIS INDUSTRY IN NJ

The cannabis landscape in the Garden State continues to evolve quickly. As of Oct. 27, the total number of conditional licenses awarded since March has topped 800, the NJCRC said at their latest public meeting.

The state has also approved its first 18 annual licenses for cannabis businesses, a “special milestone” for its newly legalized industry, commission chair Dianna Houenou said.

Meanwhile, demand from customers is skyrocketing, officials say. Tax revenue from sales of recreational cannabis in New Jersey from April 21, when the market opened, through to the end of June totaled $4,649,202. That amount includes $219,482 in Social Equity Excise Fees and is based on $79,698,831 in total sales on recreational cannabis in licensed cannabis businesses across the state

• See related article: $2M Of Weed: NJ Sees More Than 12K Customers On First Day Of Sales
• See related article: NJ Marijuana Sales Began 'On Par' With Other States, Official Says

West Orange has been wrestling with its own local rules for cannabis businesses. The town has also been busy weighing applications from several companies interested in building a dispensary, including The Library. Read More: West Orange Still Juggling Marijuana Business Applications

For now, the game of musical chairs may be coming to a stop in West Orange. During their meeting last week, the town council voted to temporarily stop accepting any more applications for resolutions of local support on Dec. 1. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be more fireworks to come, including the resolution of Kemistry LLC’s ongoing bid to pursue a cannabis retail microbusiness license in West Orange.

But for The Library – after years of hard work and keeping their fingers crossed – it appears that the skies are looking sunny overhead at last, Dishmen and Penn told Patch.

“Receiving the resolution from West Orange was the culmination of the past two and a half years of hard work and dedication,” Penn said.

“It’s hard to put into words what it’s like to go from dream to reality, idea to tangible entity,” he continued. “We are proof that people like us, regular guys with a dollar and a dream, can come from relative obscurity and not only navigate this industry but be successful at it also. Though it’s not easy we are the proof that it’s possible.”

“Corey and I are both honored and extremely humbled to be beacons of inspiration for those in the process now and those who will get into the industry in the years to come,” he added.

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