BEACH BOYZ BEACH BOYZ

his is where the story begins,” said Omar Herrera, founder and sole proprietor of Beach Boyz Budz and the Rockaway Beach Ocean Grown Club. He had just picked me up at the Rockaway Beach Pier on Jamaica Bay in New York City. I had taken the 45-minute trip from Manhattan on a ferry filled with young beachgoers ready to hit the sand on one of the first nice days of summer.

Until the end of last year, many that got off would make a stop at Omar’s converted school bus, brightly decorated in Rastafarian colors, to purchase Cannabis. “We were parked here by the ferry every day, nine to nine, that was the schedule,” said Omar. “And the people just loved us. The ferry crowd would come out and the first thing they would do is stop at the truck and they would buy our art and we would share our Cannabis with them.”

It was this loophole of selling art and gifting Cannabis that Omar hoped would keep him out of trouble. It didn’t.

In December 2022, the police descended on Omar’s truck and he was arrested. “It was like a fucking SWAT team, like 15 cars,” he recalled. “They wanted to make an example out of me. Absolutely. They made my life a living hell but I’m still here.”

The story received a tremendous amount of publicity, including from the New York Post, which gave coverage to the fact that Omar was facing felony possession and distribution charges. A few months later in April 2023, the charges were reduced to disorderly conduct –but as part of the deal, he had to give up his truck. Omar did not, however, give up his dream. It just had to be re-imagined.

“As soon as I was arrested, the following day I was back at it – I didn’t stop. I couldn’t afford to stop,” said Omar. “The arrest really impacted my home a lot – you’re all over the news, you’re all over social media, people are talking about you – this is a small town, everybody knows me. And the people that didn’t know me before, after the stories in the papers came out, they knew who I was. I didn’t have to advertise that I was a source to get Cannabis, [the media] did it for me!”

Luckily, Omar also knew of an empty shipping container sitting on a side street that was available to rent – the perfect place to set up shop again. It also didn’t hurt that it was located right next to a popular local microbrewery. “The location reminds me a little bit of Williamsburg because you have the old factories and warehouses,” he explained.

“Over here it’s a little bit more discreet. But we got to do things a little bit different this time.”

This time around, instead of selling art and gifting Cannabis, Omar’s latest venture – Rockaway Beach Ocean Grown Club – is based on a membership model.

Walk past the picnic tables set up on the sidewalk, and one of the first things you see on a glass counter as you enter the refurbished container is their membership contract.

A Stoner Owner is a Cannabis business owner who has a relationship with the plant. We want to buy and smoke Cannabis from companies that care about their products, employees and the plant. You wouldn’t buy food from a restaurant where the cooks don’t eat in the kitchen, so why buy corporate weed grown by a company only concerned with profits? Stoner Owner approval means a company cares, and we love weed grown with care. Let’s retake our culture and reshape a stigma by honoring those who grow, process and sell the best Cannabis possible.