Linda Greene, the CEO of Anacostia Organics, will be celebrating her business’s sixth anniversary tomorrow.
“I am overjoyed that we made it six years, because it has really been hard in the D.C. market,” she said. Greene has watched other licensees fold over the years due to unlicensed operator competition and regulatory difficulties.
“I am grateful we made it,” she added. But she said it has been tough. “We are not really making any money at all.”
Greene said she has kept going despite the market difficulties because it is important to her to provide communities east of the river with legal medical cannabis.
Anacostia Organics is the first and only licensed cannabis dispensary East of the River in the District of Columbia and one of only three black mother and daughter owner and operators teams in the United States. Greene has been able to hire D.C. residents to staff her businesses throughout the last six years. They are celebrating the anniversary but also coming together with other community members to “lift the spirits” of people for a brighter future within the D.C. market.
Anacostia Organics has recently had to cut out two operating days due to a drop in their patient base. It is one of five original D.C. dispensaries still open.
