He still adheres to the Semper Fi motto.
Retired Marine Osbert Orduna runs the metro area’s first licensed home delivery cannabis service from a small base in Queens — vowing to faithfully deliver legal weed right to the doorstep..
Orduna, 48, can also be the primary disabled vet to open a state-approved marijuana sales business through his newly opened firm, The Cannabis Place.
“We’re the primary to open. More vets are coming,” he said.
The son of Colombian immigrants was among the many first wave of Marines involved within the 2003 US invasion of Iraq that deposed dictator Suddam Hussein.
The Queens native supervised a 90-member unit accountable for disabling bombs and checking on biological and chemical weapons on the battlefield, and in addition oversaw convoy security accountable for protecting supply lines.
He’s now putting that logistical knowledge to make use of in his budding pot delivery business.
“Lots of our suppliers were unarmed contractors who needed protection,” he said.
Osbert Orduna runs The Cannabis Place, the metro area’s first licensed home delivery cannabis service.Stephen Yang
A Post visit to his “base” found a classy set-up with extensive surveillance and GPS technology integrated into your complete operation — not unlike those utilized by the military, law enforcement and delivery app services like Uber and Lyft. For safety reasons, there are not any signs from the outside that a weed delivery system has arrange shop there.
4 of the seven employees he’s hired to this point are military vets.
“We leveraged our skill sets within the military for the cannabis delivery operation. Now we have a sturdy readiness communication and dispatch system just like what we utilized in Iraq. Now we have constant communication for safety during deliveries,” Orduna said.
From left: mobile budtender/success Adriana Orduna, mobile budtender Edward Bailey, mobile budtender and success lead and armed forces vet Allison Migliore, Operations Zeke Santelises and CEO and marine vet Osbert Orduna.Stephen Yang
“We will communicate live in any respect times. Every little thing is under surveillance. We’re leaving the bottom to make deliveries. It’s a parallel to what we did within the military.”
All deliveries are tracked in real time using the corporate’s own GPS system to route drivers depending on traffic. Customers get a text message when a delivery is nearby. Payments are made online by customers — via ACH venmo — and there’s no money exchange. Customers will soon have the option to pay directly with a debit and bank card.
“There’s no handling of money in the sphere,” he said.
The Cannabis Place delivers to Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island and about half in Nassau and Suffolk counties.Stephen Yang
The shopper base for deliveries is usually middle aged and older — with even an 81 12 months old ordering edibles, based on tracking profiles.
“There’s a variety of mothers and dads professionals and attorneys wanting to administer stress and anxiety. Our purpose is to make top quality licensed cannabis accessible,” Orduna said.
Deliveries are made in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island — with about half in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Under the law, local communities can refuse or opt out of approving pot stores of their neighborhoods. Nassau County has completely opted out of selling cannabis in storefronts, as have most of Suffolk Count’s towns.
But residents can order cannabis brought on to their home, providing massive business opportunities for delivery services. The Cannabis Place doesn’t charge a delivery fee.
“Our purpose is to make top quality licensed cannabis accessible,” he said.
Customers appreciate the convenience of the house deliveries, driver Edward Bailey, 68, who served within the Army in post-Vietnam war era, told The Post.
“They are saying, `Thanks, thanks.’ They don’t need to exit and get it,” Bailey said of the comfortable faces he sees when he arrives with their bags of cannabis goodies.
There’s a minimum $150 purchase of cannabis products for home delivery. The typical order is $300 though some people have ordered greater than $1,000 of weed or other THC-infused products, Orduna said. Same day or next day deliveries might be constructed from noon to eight p.m., seven days per week
Under state law, all Recent York cannabis products have to be lab-tested.
There’s a minimum $150 purchase of cannabis products for home delivery.Stephen Yang
Orduna relies on a network of 26 different regular cannabis users he knows to sample all of the products — including weed, vapes, edibles, beverage and ointments. The graders fill out a questionnaire and rate the products on a scale 1 to 10.
Orduna, who grew up within the Woodside Houses, joined the Marines in 1994, seeing it as “an opportunity to get away from the neighborhood.” And marijuana was a part of life within the projects and neighborhood growing up, he said.
When he left the Marine after 10 years, he noticed vets who suffered from PTSD got addictive prescription opioid drugs like oxycodone. He said he knew a number of who committed suicide.
A secure installed in one in all the delivery vehicles is used for the products as there isn’t a handling of money in the sphere, based on Orduna.Stephen Yang
“It’s chemical sh*t. It’s poison in a bottle. They got here back home and were walking zombies. Opioids stole their lives,” he said, noting his own experience of the drug after surgery. “I used to be within the twilight zone. It’s not good for you.”
Orduna became fascinated with marijuana as a mellower and fewer addictive alternative for disabled vets across the time Recent York approved the usage of cannabis for medicinal purposes via prescription in 2014.
The legislature and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational adult use in 2021, though the rollout has been slow and rocky while an enormous illicit market of pot stores has proliferated, drawing the ire of Recent York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Orduna was among the many first wave of Marines involved within the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.Stephen Yang
The Marine vet visited 50 small or independently owned cannabis shops in five other states to learn more in regards to the cannabis industry.
Orduna said he works closely with the “justice involved” within the cannabis industry who were convicted of marijuana-related crimes when its possession was outlawed — and claims minorities were “collateral damage within the war on drugs.
Disabled vets under the law are eligible for cannabis licenses. But those convicted of cannabis offenses were among the many first to be given licenses to right the wrongs of that war, Gov. Kathy Hochul and state regulators said.
Though preference to ex-cons over vets stirred resentment, Oduna pressed ahead, partnering with co-owner Louis Chaloff of The Cannabis Place, who was incarcerated for selling marijuana when it was outlawed.
Orduna said others who’re disabled have gotten licenses to operate cannabis retail dispensaries but are on the lookout for space to locate their stores, a persistent problem that has slowed the rollout. There are only a dozen retail dispensaries operating throughout the state, including seven in Recent York City.
