She once destroyed his bong; now Neptune mom and son are going to grow marijuana together

NEPTUNE - Imagine going from breaking your son's bong in 2007 to becoming a cannabis manufacturer with him in 2023, opening the first grow facility in Monmouth County.

Virginia Papa-Horning was cleaning her house 16 years ago when she found her son Chris' bong. Marijuana was still illegal in New Jersey back then, and after finding the paraphernalia she threw it in a recycling bin and smashed it with a brick.

"I knew he smoked, but I did find the bong cleaning and it was in my house, so I took the liberty of getting rid of it. Because I had always been raised with the 'War on Drugs' and 'drugs are bad,' and that is how it was," she said.

Over the years her opinion on cannabis started to change, as did the opinions of many New Jersey voters, who chose to legalize it in a 2020 referendum.

"I knew he used (cannabis) and then he convinced me," Papa-Horning said. "It was a slow evolution I would say. By the early 2010s I was changing my position on it. I no longer saw it as a 'War on Drugs.' I saw it as something that was beneficial to many people for many different reasons."

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'It's a little surreal'

Papa-Horning, a Neptune resident, is now Class I cultivator, and operates what will soon be known as Neptune's Garden in a low-profile warehouse at 1930 Heck Ave. with her son, Chris Horning, and their partner Will Perry.

Their company, Jersey Shore Ventures Group LLC, won approval for a cannabis manufacturing business in November 2022 when the Township Committee gave them the green light.

"It’s a little surreal. I’m extremely proud of all the hard work Chris had done and how we’ve made this happen as a team. I’m also glad that I’ve been open-minded enough to have grown and found the important value of a medicinal plant that I was taught was so bad," Papa-Horning said.

Perry, originally from the Bronx, teamed up with Chris and Virginia and recently moved to Neptune to assume the jobs of chief operating officer and director of cultivation.

"We will have unique cultivation practices in the state of New Jersey, as we’ll be using more organic methods of growing — using soil with amendments, organic compost teas, beneficial insects instead of harmful pesticides, hand trimming instead of machine trim, and focusing on terpenes instead of THC percentage," Perry said.

"A lot of grows in New Jersey are currently producing to maximize yield and THC percentage. We want to focus more on quality, whether it’s what we feed our plants, our low and slow dry/cure process, to something as granular as the moisture percentage our flower is when it gets delivered to dispensaries," Perry said. "There’s so much more than just 'being high.' We want to focus on the totality of the consumer experience in terms of how they feel the effects to how the flower tastes."

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Chris Horning, the chief executive officer, has experience in hospitality and customer service and has been a cannabis advocate, enthusiast and worked in the legacy market his whole adult life. He grew up in Monmouth County until he attended Coastal Carolina University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2008.

In 2009, Horning moved to San Diego during the recession, but finding a career was difficult. Good fortune and the website Craigslist led him to move into a grow house during his relocation.

"By 2009 is when Chris started converting me over. At that point he was living in California and that is when he first really go involved in cultivation … and he learned so much more about the product, and he just started sharing everything," Papa-Horning said.

In that San Diego grow house, Horning was exposed to the cultivation side of the business, where he learned the craft and saw the opportunities in cannabis.

'This could be my business'

Horning came back to New Jersey as the state moved the legalize marijuana. And his mother decided to join him in business as a 51% owner, making Jersey Shore Ventures group a certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise.

"I've always worked for somebody else. I have always worked for men. (My son said) this is an opportunity for (me). This could be my business," Papa-Horning said.

Papa-Horning has a long career as an office administrator for an insurance company and a long-term care facility, so she is familiar with the day-to-day running of a business.

"We should be ready by mid-late October in terms of being built out and having equipment in there," said Perry, who joined the mother and son after co-founding Magic Hour Cannabis, a boutique indoor cultivation and lifestyle company, in Oregon in 2019.

It will take around four months, or around February 2024, for the cannabis planted in Neptune's Garden to be ready to be sold at dispensaries.

It would be the first recreational grow facility in Monmouth and Ocean counties; Garden State Dispensary, owned by Ayr New Jersey, operated a medical marijuana grow facility in Lakewood.

"Because basically the plants need to grow and then there is also a process of the drying, trimming, curing and testing," Perry said. "All those factors put together, I'd say about 100 days to 120 days before we are seeing revenue from these plants," Perry said.

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Perry said he is passionate about "empowering other entrepreneurs of color to stake their claim in the rapidly growing cannabis industry."

"We are super adamant about the passion for the plant and helping people. Obviously, we want to make money, but we also want to empower the community. We want to hire local in Neptune. We want to use the plant as a catalyst for good," Perry said.

He has regularly told his business partners how big of a win it is just to get the license, stating it took almost two years for him in Oregon. "There is a large lag time between that site control and when you actually get the license. So a lot of people are just burning cash," Perry said.

Papa-Horning said it will be "wonderful as soon as we can get Will's plants there and have the most incredible product."

"Because Will does have the best (product). Everyone as soon as they hear it is Will, everyone is so excited, and they are waiting," Papa-Horning said.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com @CharlesDayeAPP

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ legal weed: Neptune could have 1st grow facility in Monmouth County