By Darek Michael Wajda —
My journey over the last year from journalist to hemp store owner has been quite a ride.
It began when I left my job as a social media reporter with Euronews NBC in France and moved back to New Jersey to search for my next gig. The search wasn’t easy. Frustrated I decided I would start walking through every door that opened.
This meant coaching soccer to 9-year-old boys at the PSG Academy in New York and working at one of Manhattan’s Lower East Side bars. My life took a new turn not long ago at 5 AM as I walked to my car after my first closing shift at the bar. It happened when I passed a nearby cannabis shop.
I couldn’t believe what saw through the window. cannabidiol nugs in mason jars? Could this be true? There’s no way I missed the legalization of marijuana in NYC when I was in France.
The next morning, I rushed back. I had to know what they were selling. “What’s in the jars?” I asked. The answer: CBD. What in the world was CBD?
This question led me to ask for a job as a sales associate where I learned how to weigh out grams of CBD flower and stuff pre-sealed cones. Transformation complete. From reporting to rolling joints in less than a year.
In a short time, I went from sales associate to director of media and marketing, helping to build our corporate team, expand our locations and launch new products like a CBD-infused skincare line. Soon another opportunity came when I was offered the chance to open my own CBD store in New Jersey, The Green Room. After launching in June, we are proudly Hoboken’s first CBD shop.
Since then we have been on a mission to both educate the public about CBD’s benefits and to help specific customers deal with their particular ailments. CBD medical, after all, is an essential medicinal component that can be easily added to anyone’s diet. As a plant-based anti-inflammatory, CBD is said to be a healing component from cannabis. Hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD), helps achieve homeostasis by assisting with anxiety, mood, sleep and pain.
Overall, there is an ever-expanding array of CBD products industrywide. This shouldn’t be surprising given the industry’s growth. My personal favorites include beverages, topical lotions and pain relief sticks. Our business aims to supply more plant-based CBD products that offer direct health benefits rather than just sugary sweets. This would include, among other items, CBD-smokable flowers, tinctures, vapes, teas and even pet treats. And yes, we even offer CBD joints.
CBD is undoubtedly powerful. It also has unquestionably impacted my life—enhancing my health, offering me a new career, allowing me to help others, creating new friends and yes, we even offer CBD pre-rolled hemp joints.
I’m confident in its impact on me, my friends and family, Hoboken and the rest of the world. This industry will only continue to grow!
Darek Michael Wajda’s journey from journalist to CBD shop owner began in New Jersey where he was born to a Polish father and Cuban mother and carried through to Northeastern University, where he studied International Affairs & Political Science. After working in various NBC offices for several years, he returned to the U.S. in 2018 and began his next career in the retail hemp industry. In June 2019 he opened The Green Store in Hoboken, NJ. For more information please visit www.darekmichael.com www.thegreenroomhbkn.com http://www.instagram.com/thegreenroomhbkn
