Changing the face of the cannabis industry

Cannabis businesses have transformed from clandestine ventures to glossy lifestyle brands in a matter of years, thanks to an evolving regulatory and business landscape.

The majority of states now have some form of legalized cannabis, whether for medical or recreational use. The 2021 U.S. cannabis market is valued at $33 billion , according to an analysis by market research firm Grand View Research. That number is forecast to balloon to $84 billion by 2028. These trends indicate a fertile environment for seeding a new cannabis venture.

But while the cannabis world continues to expand, the industry remains overwhelmingly white and difficult to break into for people of color and LGBTQ individuals. A 2017 survey from Marijuana Business Daily found that 81% of cannabis business owners and founders were white. The proportion of Hispanic/Latino owners and founders was 5.7%, while 4.3% were Black, and just 2.4% were Asian.

To help spur greater diversity, here’s how people of color and LGBTQ individuals can spark their careers in cannabis.

Reclaiming cannabis

Cannabis has been both a weapon against and a balm for racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals.

Communities of color continue to be disproportionately policed for marijuana offenses. Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, an April 2020 report from the American Civil Liberties Union found. And during the AIDS crisis, cannabis was one of few treatments that alleviated patients’ pain, which led the LGBTQ community to advocate for legalization. These experiences are the context for today’s push for equity and entrepreneurship in the industry.

“We have a unique opportunity for people to do conscious capitalism,” says Felicia Carbajal

, a cannabis activist and executive director at the Social Impact Center, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for underserved communities. “The more BIPOC, the more queer people we have participating, we can force the industry to shift and find some values.” (BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and people of color.)

To Carbajal, that means creating equitable opportunities and protecting people from abusive business practices, tokenization and exploitation.