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Cannabis oil and butter products by the local, Indian woman-owned Veda Warrior debuted on New Jersey dispensary shelves recently.
CEO Smrita Choubey noted she is working with several dispensaries to promote their products after first shipping in December. For example, she is holding a baking class tomorrow with Baked by the River dispensary in Central Jersey.
Choubey is also working with the Other Side dispensary in Jersey City to host a 3 course-infused meal and a yoga class with Hud Haus in North Bergen in North Jersey.
Like most NJ cannabis manufacturers and growers, they did not have the equivalent of a dispensary’s grand opening party when they debuted.
They make products like cannabis-infused cooking oil and organic cannabis butter.
Choubey said her oil is an excellent product for food connoisseurs, especially those who like to cook with and consume olive oil.
“My focus right now is to get in front of as many chefs as possible,” she explained.
Choubey said their topical and gummy products can be used medicinally for treating arthritis, joint pain, menstrual pain, stress, sleep, muscle pain, calming, and focus.
She noted cannabis works well with other herbs to make treatments for ailments. So, her formulas involve multiple plants.
Veda Warrior gets organic, locally sourced butter from a 5th generation ghee butter maker. Their olive oil is from a Greek family business. The coconut oil they used is cold-pressed and comes from India and Sri Lanka.
“I know the people I’m sourcing them from,” Choubey said.
She said their oils are 100 percent organic.
Veda Warrior products are in medical and adult-use dispensaries thanks to the large Multi-State Operator (MSO), the Cannabist, which is supplying her with distillate oil for her products.
“I don’t believe in the term “rec.” There is something your spirit is looking for. You’re looking for pain relief or stress relief,” Choubey noted.
Their products can be found in the following dispensaries:
Anja in Highland Park
Baked by the River in Lambertville
BluLight in Woodbury Heights
Canna Remedies in Ewing
Cannabist – Deptford
Cannabist – Vineland
Elevated by The CannaBoss Lady in Maplewood
Jersey Roots in West Milford
Med Leaf in Egg Harbor City
New Era Dispensary in South Bound Brook
Nightjar in Bloomfield
Nirvana Dispensary in Mt Laurel Township
NJ Leaf in Freehold
Sanctuary Cannabis in Scotch Plains
Shore House Canna in West Cape May
Taste of Earth in Buena
Theo A Cannabis Dispensary in Franklin Park
Valley Wellness in Raritan
In the future Veda Warrior wants to debut products with the concentrate hash.
“Cannabis is a crop native to India,” Choubey explained. “It has been used for thousands and thousands of years.”
“Sadly, that kind of got hidden and demolished because prohibition that happened globally,” she added. “Even in India today there’s few people researching these ancient Ayurvedic findings.”
However, “you can’t really outlaw nature!” Choubey exclaimed.
She developed her product lines after researching cannabis’ place in Indian culture. Choubey explained that she became fascinated by Ayurveda, the ancient sister science of yoga. In Ayurveda, there are 700 medicinal plants noted, and cannabis is one of them.
She noted that in Ayurveda, there are 40 Sanskrit terms for types of cannabis. For example, Ganja is the Sanskrit word for cannabis flower specifically.
“Why would these ancient people figure 40 names for one plant?” Choubey asked.
“I really felt no one else was exploring these ancient findings on a mass scale in the Western market,” she said.
So, Choubey wants to preserve, modernize, and popularize Ayurveda.
“I really view myself as a storyteller and Indigenous wisdom keeper even though I have this really corporate side,” she said. “If I don’t do this it may not get this done.”
The Vedas are the ancient Indian religious texts that contain information about Ayurveda.
“I gotta be a warrior. There were many moments that happened when I almost gave up,” Choubey noted about the name.
In 218, she launched the company with an advisory team of Ayurveda specialists, chemists, and farmers.
Choubey sees cannabis as a holy sacrament and a medicine
“Cannabis is a spiritual plant. It is one of the 5 most important plants on planet Earth,” she declared.
Choubey noted that in India, cannabis is consumed to worship the Hindu Goddess Shiva.
“My grandfather was the one at home who would bring bricks of hash for holidays,” she added.
Choubey is working with the Cannabist and renting their space in a type of deal that is becoming common.
“They’re letting me do my own thing. I have a very different philosophy. I splurged on my ingredients,” she explained.
Choubey noted she has Ayurvedic specialists and scientists on her board who are very concerned about the quality of their cannabis oil products.
“I do run my own process,” she added. “I do all my own formulations.”
“It would have been hard for me to do my sales outreach,” Choubey noted.
She said the Cannabist also helped with distribution and exposure.
“They’ve been an excellent partner so far,” Choubey said.
“This is our phase one approach,” she noted. “This is better than nothing.”
Choubey said she has her staff working on 12 products. Initially, she was making products herself. She then hired a team of technicians along with a head baker.
“It was not my first choice to work with an MSO,” Choubey noted.
She said she tried for 4 years to open a licensed cannabis farm. Choubey secured a place and the necessary municipal permits to start. However, the property’s neighbor filed a lawsuit.
“I didn’t have the funding to take on the legal system,” Choubey noted. “I’m one of these cautionary tales on what can go wrong. I fought that litigation for a year.”
She said she had a couple of investors but has been largely self-funded.
Veda Warrior won a conditional growing license in October 2022 from the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC).
“The plant tests you. You need to be resilient,” Choubey added. “When you get into the legal world, the headaches are countless.”
“In college, I was known for my brownies. I was just doing it for fun,” she explained.
Choubey noted she is from a Northern Indian family and inherited a farm there where weed grows nearby like a weed. It is a place where landrace strains of cannabis are common.
She explained she lived in East Brunswick in Central Jersey until 8th grade. Her family then moved to South Brunswick. Choubey now lives in Long Brunch in Monmouth County.
She explained she started her career in banking at JP Morgan working with Johns Hopkins.
“They are not aligned toward healing,” Choubey said. “They were not trying to reduce the number of patients.”
“The system is not built to heal people. It’s built to make money,” she declared.
So, Choubey changed her career and went into cannabis.
Notably she has spoken at a NJ Cannabis Insider event in the past.
“}]] Infused cannabis oil and butter products by the local, Indian woman owned Veda Warrior company debuted on New Jersey dispensary shelves. Read More
