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.
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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