This photo rendering by Brick City Reconstruction shows what the Flower Garden Dispensary will look like when it is completed in 2024.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — Dana Rone feels she is going to be The Queen of Cannabis.
Come 2024, Rone will be opening a one-of-a-kind retail cannabis dispensary at 381 Martin Luther King Blvd. at the intersection of Main Street. The multi-use building has four stories and Rone has a vision for each level.
The first level will be a quiet zone—a learning center. The second level will be a cannabis bar with a karaoke space and a pool table. The third level will be a rental space for painting and yoga. And then there’s the rooftop for those who want to relax and read when they can’t make it to the beach.
After all, the dispensary is just 1,000 feet from City Hall and will be a great place to chill and safely consume cannabis products.
Rone, a Newark resident, and a life-long civil servant and advocate in Newark and the county of Essex, worked closely with state legislators to ensure the NJ Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization (CREAMM) Act was drafted and passed with Society Equity measures for Black and minority participants.
“It’s [cannabis] such a useful component. We only have one dialogue in our communities—of criminalization. We never got to experience it on a positive level,” Rone explained. “The real problem is in urban communities we did not have the opportunity to see it as medicinal.”
Cannabis has helped Rone with her anxiety. She’s also seen it help family members who have cancer and are nauseous and without an appetite. “It has so many components that are valuable,” she said.
Regarding the senior community, Rone points out that cannabis is only seen in one way, as negative until you talk it through. “It may be an alternative to valium,” expressed Rone. She also feels that most people don’t understand how diverse cannabis is, as there’s lozenges, edibles, and topicals, to name a few.
“Most only think you can smoke,” she said.
Rone also sees a barrier in the cannabis community. “In New Jersey, medicinal marijuana has been legal for 12 years, but
less than one percent of African American and minority participation.”
In her journey to create The Flower Garden Dispensary, Rone feels what is most rewarding is her team of partners, Dawn Middleton and Jose Rivera III. “Having people who believe in your dream, and to work with you to help manifest that dream,” she said. “We work together well. We’re a solid team.”
However, getting her dream off the ground is not without challenges.
“It’s a very costly venture,” she said. “This is not a simple application you can do alone. This is not just a typical license. You need attorneys. You need a business plan. You need site approval. You need a lease agreement. It’s an expensive list.”
Rone’s concept is for the dispensary to be basically a community center where you can smoke. “Let’s do these things to make cannabis as simple as having a cup of coffee,” she said. “Educate our community, not just about the products, about the health components, about how you go to work in the industry. How do you start training someone for an industry that is new? It’s totally my dream. No other business in the country is doing this.”
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