Shinnecock-Based Peshaun Is a Growing Force in the Cannabis Business

_­When Eric Roddy, known to everyone as Taboo, started growing weed on the Shinnecock reservation in Southampton a decade ago, managing fear and stress was as much a part of his efforts as balancing soil pH, moisture and light. Today he runs Peshaun, a fully legitimate, state-licensed cannabis supplier with multiple growing facilities — and some seriously dank nuggets.

“I was growing 10 years ago, when nobody was. I was guerrilla growing. When there were helicopters flying above, like there is every summer, I was like this…can they see me?” he says, mimicking the old days of scanning the sky.

Taboo, 41, points out that he initially grew marijuana for his own use and eventually gave it to family and friends, back before March 31, 2021, when adult-use recreational cannabis was legalized in New York State, and he could start his own business.

While Taboo says he’s had seven back surgeries, marijuana offers more than pain management — it helps quiet the noise in his brain and it allows him to put up with people he finds stressful and frustrating. “I don’t have the time or patience to deal with stupid people, so this is what cures me. … When I’m just functioning, I hear chatter. When I hit a joint, it just silences,” he adds.

“I used to spend a lot on smoking weed, because I smoke concentrates, hash and all that stuff, and I got tired of spending the money,” Taboo says, sharing how he went from enthusiastic marijuana user to prolific and skilled grower. “I was just like, hey, why don’t I try it outdoors one year and see what the hell happens? So I tried it outdoors, I got beginner’s luck and my son was like, ‘Yo, I want to grow some more!’”

They tried growing additional plants outside the next summer and found continued success, but it was the thought of having no buds over winter that inspired the next level of growing. “I was like, let’s get a little tent and see what we can do on the indoor. And that was a circus. The first time growing indoors, it was bad, it was bad. Hard. Hard, hard. From there, with every harvest we got better and better and better,” Taboo says, explaining how he was soon growing weed that was better than just about anything he could buy on the street.

“We got a 10- by 10-foot tent, which took up our whole living room. We made the sacrifice of turning our living room into a grow, and we never needed to buy weed ever again,” he says, describing how what would eventually be called Peshaun — “flower of the soul” in Algonquin — became a family affair with his son Obet and wife of 16 years, Yanira, taking part in all aspects of the business.

“At the beginning, it was just for him to smoke so it was a small space, and little by little he tricked me and it got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Yanira says during a tour of their largest indoor grow facility on the reservation — an impressive endeavor with multiple tents and shipping containers filled with bright lights, irrigation systems and lush, fragrant plants. “Before this building, he tricked me to buy a bigger tent to put it in the living room, but it ended up being a huge tent that took up the entire living room,” she continues. “Little by little they got me in here, too.”

Yanira also runs their shop, Vibes Ink Tattoos, full-time in Riverhead (41 E. Main Street), which has a team of talented artists, including Taboo, who is sought out for his realistic, black-and-grey work that keeps him booked solid for 4-5 months in advance.

Pointing out that his tattoo shop is already very successful, Taboo says his cannabis business is about more than making money. “I don’t do this for a money thing. I do this for my own health, my own medicine, and the medicine everybody else needs. I got people on dying beds, in hospice care, who have their family members reach out to me and say, ‘He just wants to be in no pain, can you help him?’ Hell yeah. And they go to bring out their wallet and I’m like, no, put that away, I’m helping,” he says.

And while there’s no reason to doubt his altruistic motives, it’s also clear Taboo also has great ambitions for Peshaun, including marketing his own strain of cannabis, collaborating with others in the business and making his mark on the scene. “I want to get my cannabis company out into the mainstream. I want to be mentioned in the same breath as Burner. I want to be mentioned in the same breath as Doja Pak, Runtz and all those guys. I want to be as much of a household name when it comes to cannabis as Cookies,” he says, listing some of the biggest names in his industry.

At the same time, Taboo is doing everything he can to maximize his yield from plants and to perfect his absolute banger signature strain, which he calls “Succotash Gumbo,” or simply “Gumbo,” a unique breed with a high THC content and distinct, all-natural bubblegum flavor that many desire and try to replicate.

Inside, he has state-of-the-art equipment to automate and electronically track all elements of the grow so it can be perfectly replicated when the product comes out better than before. “This is all about data – this whole game is all about data to me,” Taboo says, though he admits instinct and gut definitely play a role as well.

Currently, he can produce 2.3 pounds of dry marijuana per light in his grow space, which is commendable, but Taboo won’t be satisfied until he can produce 3.6 pounds per light. “Once I reach 3.6, I’ll be happy with myself, to call myself a master grower,” he says, noting that he’s close to achieving this. “I don’t think I’m very far away from it at all.”

He has an outdoor grow used for breeding and products such as rosin, a cannabis extract, but he never sells these buds as flower for smoking, which is his primary product and it’s only grown inside, where he has timers and dimmers on lights to mimic the sun rising and setting, and he keeps careful watch on water, nutrients and much more.

Taboo is also working on using every bit of his plants, including leaves and stems, after processing to make a powerful extract called Rick Simpson Oil, or RSO. “Pretty soon I won’t be wasting anything,” he says.

Thankfully, the legalization of cannabis and the Shinnecock’s early jump on the business has given Peshaun a competitive edge that would be next to impossible in the old days. “I can grow more plants and not be scared to grow more plants. I can do more R&D research with these plants and not be scared to. It was just fear. There was a fear factor,” Taboo says, recalling his days as a “guerrilla grower.” And he’s able to sell his product to everyone in the community at the Shinnecock’s dispensary, Little Beach Harvest, including folks from outside the reservation.

“These are the people we are trying to uplift and bring more of a spotlight to,” Little Beach Harvest Brand Specialist Jay Wright says of Taboo and Peshaun. “The fact that we have this facility now, he doesn’t have to worry about that fear. He can freely grow and have somewhere he can take care of not just his family, but other people who need the medicine. And that’s great.”

In addition to selling various strains of flower, Peshaun has pre-rolled joints and edible concentrate, and they are working on vapes. “I get a lot of good feedback on my cannabis and the marketing I’m doing with it, so I’m trying to run with it and make it something. We only have 10 years for this to work and be successful at it, because that’s how long a natural cannabis market lasts before it starts to plateau,” Taboo says. “I was there before it even started, and it hasn’t really even started yet…and I want to be already on that top tier when it begins.”

Visit littlebeachharvest.com to buy Peshaun products or visit them at 56 Old Montauk Highway in Southampton.