Moorestown High School alumni Sean Allen and Forest Steinberg have joined forces on a mural at Castaway Cannabis, a new women-owned and operated marijuana dispensary in Delran.
Steinberg, who is Castaway Cannabis’ director of operations, put the word out on the high school’s alumni Facebook page for a muralist and found Allen’s name mentioned by others. The two had known each other since elementary school, but the mural project gave them a chance to catch up and bring something special to the community.
“It was cool to reconnect in that way,” Allen said.
His mural is a customized design of Castaway Cannabis’ logo image – an octopus – with fewer patterns and more free flow.
“We just really want to show (people) that you can have fun with this,” Steinberg explained. “It doesn’t need to be that medical, sterile-looking environment.”
According to its website Castaway Cannabis’ mission – like other dispensaries – is to provide safe access to legal cannabis and raise awareness of its health benefits. Steinberg has been in the industry since 2016 and sees Castaway as helping others.
“A lot of veterans don’t want to get a medical card,” Steinberg noted. “They’re worried about the VA (federal Department of Veterans Affairs) … so they’ll go to recreational dispensaries and they will be looking for advice, ‘Hey this is what I’m dealing with, the pain is here, the pain is there,’ and so we can actually provide them that relief.”
To that point, Allen recalled being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2020 and going through five rounds of chemotherapy. For the first round or two of treatment, he tried to avoid medicines or supplements, but eventually gave in to using cannabis to mitigate the effects of chemo like nausea, anxiety and insomnia.
“ … All three of those things were immediately better, and I continued using cannabis throughout the whole time that I was doing chemotherapy,” he noted. ” … I can’t stress enough how it was so incredibly helpful. It really turned me into a believer of how the plant can help folks not just with anxiety, but medicinal ways where they can get back to a normal life.”
Castaway’s artwork partially represents its vibe – calm and safe – and gives consumers a sneak peek of what’s behind the doors.
“I’m hoping they feel free and creative and (feel) the flowing, randomness of the tentacles,” Allen observed. “I hope that it just gives them a segue into the nautical theme inside.”
For more information on Castaway Cannabis, visit https://www.castawaycanna.com.
