First Black woman-owned cannabis dispensary tries to counter illegal shops

PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (PIX11) -- On Thursday, multiple milestones passed in efforts to have legal cannabis sales right the wrongs of past drug offenses.  

Brooklyn not only got its first Black woman-owned cannabis dispensary, but it also saw the launch of a new program that is intended to help underrepresented people navigate the many challenges to legal dispensary ownership. Both the new business and the new program are trying to help reduce the number of illegal marijuana shops, which now outnumber legal dispensaries at a ratio of one legal one for every 50 illegal ones.  

The new store, Matawana, is named after the family that founded it. Leeann Mata is the CEO, and her first-ever sale took place at 4:20 on Thursday afternoon for her sister, Maya. She paid in cash, with a $2 bill on top for good luck, Maya said.  

There was a line outside the front door of the dispensary, at 14th Street and 5th Avenue. Teller windows line the wall behind the digital cash registers.  

"It used to be a Chase," founder Leeann Mata explained. "I bought the bank." 

She spoke with PIX11 News about her new business after welcoming Mayor Eric Adams to the formal opening.  

During the ceremony, she gave the mayor a gift of a gym bag emblazoned with the Matawana logo and large letters that spelled out a phrase that Mata read, after giving Mayor Adams the item.  

"The Cannabis Mayor," she said, as the mayor checked to see if any products had been put inside. They had not. 

"Hook him up," Mata said jokingly to one of her employees.  

The "Cannabis Mayor" was on hand to promote how the new opening is part of an effort to put illegal marijuana shops out of business.  

Statistics from his office say that New York City Sheriff's deputies have made 15 evictions of illegal shops, closed 160 of them, and seized $29 million worth of illegal products. 

Still, the mayor said at the grand opening, the state must do more to crack down on illegal vendors and promote legal ones.  

One case in point was evident shortly after the opening ceremony.  

During the event, Mayor Adams referred to tall adhesive posters that covered the windows of the Matawana dispensary.  

"You see the logo on the front," Adams said, "it just really shows that you're in a comfortable setting, where you can enjoy legal cannabis." 

However, a few hours later, Matawana was instructed by state inspectors to tear the banners down. Mata said that the custom-made banners had cost her thousands of dollars.  

She said that the inspectors, during a final inspection before allowing customers to enter, said that the banners could violate the state cannabis management code. 

Requirements like that are among a long list of ways that opening a dispensary legally can be a big challenge in New York.  

In fact, Mata said, the protracted licensing and opening process is the reason that New York City has 1,500 illegal shops and only 34 legal ones.  

That disparity is why Thursday's opening was also celebrated as the first result of a new initiative from Housing Works, called the Cannabis Adult Use Retail Dispensary, or CAURD, Community Initiative.  

Housing Works is a decades-old HIV-AIDS charity that was also New York State's first legal cannabis retailer. Its community initiative program is set up to guide licensees like Leeann Mata through the many hurdles in the process of becoming a business.  

Sasha Nutgent is the director of retail at Housing Works Cannabis Company. She talked about what she called the mission behind her organization's program which is targeted at cannabis licensees trying to open dispensaries.  

"What we're doing is helping them expand, grow, and understand their business just a little bit better," Nutgent said.  

Mata, at her business's grand opening, was specific about how she had needed the help that the Housing Works program offered.  

"Can you find a good location? Do you have the capital to open? Do you have the knowledge to get the right vendors that are licensed by New York State?" she asked. "You don't know." 

She said Housing Works helped her answer all those questions in the months-long process it took for her to open.  

The Housing Works initiative is slated to help at least five other dispensaries open in the next few weeks, according to the organization.