He still adheres to the Semper Fi motto.
Retired Marine Osbert Orduna runs the primary licensed metropolitan area marijuana home delivery service from a small base in Queens — vowing to faithfully deliver legal weed straight to your door.
Orduna, 48, can be the primary disabled vet to open a state-approved marijuana business through his newly opened business, Cannabis place.
“We’re the primary to open. More vets are coming,” he said.
The son of Colombian immigrants, he was certainly one of the primary Marines involved in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq that overthrew dictator Suddam Hussein.
A native of Queens, he oversaw a 90-man unit liable for defusing bombs and checking biological and chemical weapons on the battlefield, and oversaw convoy security liable for protecting supply lines.
He now uses this logistical expertise in his growing cookware business.
“A lot of our suppliers were unarmed contractors who needed protection,” he said.
![Osbert Orduna.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100822.jpg?w=1024)
Post’s visit to its “base” showed a sophisticated setup with extensive surveillance and GPS technology integrated into the complete operation – just like those used by the military, law enforcement and delivery app services comparable to Uber and Lyft. For security reasons, there aren’t any signs from the skin that the weed delivery system has arrange shop there.
4 of the seven employees he has hired up to now are military veterans.
“We used our military skills for cannabis delivery operations. We now have a robust communications and readiness control system just like the one we used in Iraq. We now have constant communication for security during deliveries,” said Orduna.
![From left: Adriana Orduna, Mobile Projects Execution Manager Edward Bailey, Veteran Mobile Procurement Fulfillment, Allison Migliore, Mobile Projects Execution Manager Zeke Santelises Operations, Marine Veteran Osbert Orduna, CEO.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100847.jpg?w=1024)
“We will communicate live on a regular basis. The whole lot is under surveillance. We leave the bottom for deliveries. It’s an analogy to what we did in the military.”
All deliveries are tracked in real time using the corporate’s GPS system, which routes drivers based on traffic. Customers receive a text message when a delivery is near. Payments are made online by customers – via ACH venmo – and there isn’t any money exchange. Soon, customers will have the option to pay directly with debit and bank cards.
“There isn’t a money handling in the sector,” he said.
![THC vaporizer at The Cannabis Place.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100787.jpg?w=1024)
The delivery customer base is generally middle-aged and older – even an 81-year-old ordering groceries, in keeping with the tracking profiles.
“There are lots of moms and dads, professionals and lawyers who wish to take care of stress and anxiety. Our goal is to make high-quality licensed marijuana available,” said Orduna.
Deliveries are made in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island – about half of that are in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
By law, local communities can refuse or opt out of approving grass shops in their neighborhoods. Nassau County has completely stopped selling marijuana in storefronts, as have most Suffolk county towns.
But residents can order marijuana brought on to their homes, which offers huge business opportunities for delivery services. Cannabis Place doesn’t charge a delivery fee.
“Our goal is to make high-quality licensed marijuana available,” he said.
Customers appreciate the convenience of home delivery, said driver Edward Bailey, 68, who served in the military in the post-Vietnam War period.
“They are saying, ‘Thanks, thanks.’ They haven’t got to exit and get it,” Bailey said of the completely satisfied faces he sees when he arrives with their cannabis bags.
The minimum purchase of cannabis products for home delivery is $150. The common order is $300, although some people have ordered greater than $1,000 of marijuana or other THC-containing products, Orduna said. Same or next day deliveries may be created from noon to 8pm, seven days a week
By state law, all New York cannabis products should be lab tested.
![Ready marijuana joints at The Cannabis Place.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100861.jpg?w=1024)
Orduna relies on a network of 26 different regular cannabis users she knows to check out all of the products – including weed, e-cigarettes, edibles, beverages and ointments. The evaluators complete a questionnaire and rate the products on a scale of 1 to 10.
Orduna, who grew up in Woodside Houses, joined the Marine Corps in 1994, seeing it as “a chance to get away from the neighborhood.” He said marijuana was a part of living in projects and growing up in the neighborhood.
When he left the Marine after 10 years, he noticed that vets affected by PTSD were receiving addictive prescription opioid drugs comparable to oxycodone. He said he knew a few who had committed suicide.
![Safe installed in one of the vans used by The Cannabis Place.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100868.jpg?w=1024)
“It’s chemical shit. It’s poison in a bottle. They got here home and were walking zombies. Opioids stole their lives,” he said, noting his own experience with the drug after surgery. “I used to be in the twilight zone. It isn’t good for you.”
Orduna took an interest in marijuana as a milder and fewer addictive alternative for disabled veterinarians across the time New York City approved using medical marijuana for prescription medical purposes in 2014.
Legislature and former governor Andrew Cuomo legalized the sale of marijuana for adult recreational use in 2021, although implementation has been slow and difficult while a huge illegal marketplace for pot shops has grown, drawing the wrath of New York Mayor Eric Adams.
![Osbert Orduna.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012100850.jpg?w=1024)
Vet Marine visited 50 small or independent cannabis shops in five other states to learn more concerning the cannabis industry.
Orduna said he was working closely with “the judiciary involved” in the cannabis industry, which was convicted of marijuana offenses when its possession was banned – and says minorities were “collateral damage in the war on drugs.
By law, disabled veterinarians are eligible for a cannabis license. But those convicted of cannabis crimes were among the many first to receive licenses to right the wrongs of this war, Governor Kathy Hochul and state regulators said.
While it was resented to prefer ex-cons over veterinarians, Oduna pushed forward by working with Khaled Ahmed, CEO of The Cannabis Place, who was imprisoned for selling marijuana when it was banned.
Orduna said other individuals with disabilities have been licensed to operate retail cannabis shops, but are searching for space to locate their stores, an ongoing problem that has slowed rollout. There are only a dozen retail pharmacies operating across the state, including seven in New York City.