TRENTON — Life is very different these days for John Dockery.
A man who once sold marijuana illegally in the Capital City is putting the finishing touches on the city’s first legal cannabis dispensary, Moja Life, on South Warren Street.
“A lot of people here know me from the legacy side, I sold cannabis here for 20 years,” Dockery said when asked about the transition from legacy sales to licensed dispensary. “It’s rough, I’d be a liar if I said it was easy, it is rough. But a lot of the same things that apply there, apply here.”
But Dockery said the people around him make the transition possible. He credits a wide array of people, from lawyers to advisors to friends, “I have a great team.”
Legacy knowledge will help in the new business venture.
“I consider myself a connoisseur of cannabis,” Dockery said. “I can look, smell, and know what I’m getting myself into before I even try the product, so that transitions well into this space. A lot of the big corporations just know we’re growing a plant and they’re pushing a plant out. For me, I know the quality of the plant, it’s different than a lot of people.”
That personal touch is a big part of what Dockery plans to be the selling point for cannabis customers in Trenton.
“It’s family here. It’s a different culture here. We respect the people, embrace the community,” Dockery said when asked what makes Moja Life different than the larger, corporate-owned dispensaries.
“I’m a Trentonian through and through. To be the first to show the way, to set the bar, feels great,” Dockery said. “At the beginning of our process, a lot of people told me, ‘you can’t do that’ and to just see it come full circle is a blessing.”
Dockery was previously planning to open the Warren St. dispensary with different branding, partnering with a company in Colorado.
Along the way, he decided he wanted to do things his own way, not sharing the same priorities with the previous brand, and made his own company, Moja Life, which he said means “one life” or “great life.”
“That’s what we all have in common, right, everybody has that one life, nobody gets to do it again, so make the best of that life.”
With so many new businesses popping up along South Warren, Dockery is hoping his shop will help his neighbors as well as his own brand.
“We have Slammin’ Brew that just opened next door, the mayor just talked about a new pizzeria, we have Quayshuan, we have Hummingbird, and so many great restaurants,” Dockery said. “Just to make all of that flourish with more foot traffic will be great for this area, I think cannabis will bring a lot of that. We should all benefit from it.”
“We have a lot of great things going on, not just on South Warren, but all over Trenton,” Dockery said. “A lot of my friends don’t come downtown because there isn’t a lot to do. Just to get the community to start coming back downtown is part of my goal.”
Dockery said he’s planning to have an impact outside of the cannabis business as well.
“I’m a city kid, I see the city from the inside. A lot of the stuff that a lot of the other people don’t get to see, I’ve seen,” Dockery said. “From playing basketball in Cadwalader Park to riding our bikes through the city as kids, I see the city different than a lot of people see it.”
“[I’ve] already connected with leaders of churches, business owners, leaders of groups that help children, so I can be part of the overall community.”
While at the time of this interview, Moja Life was still winding its way through the permit process at City Hall, Dockery has plans for growing his business through the business of growing.
He will soon be growing product to sell in his shop, already having obtained a cultivation license and has plans underway to create his own line of cannabis products.
“Just knowing the quality of the product, knowing how organically it’s grown, it just puts me a couple steps ahead of of the game,” Dockery said. “I grow a quality product, I sell it here. That’s the big complaint in the industry right now. There is a lot of product on the market, but it’s not as good as what people are used to, especially from the legacy side.”
