Report: Women and minorities still heavily underrepresented in the cannabis industry

By Natan Ponieman

One myth revolves around the legal cannabis industry.

Forged from the ashes of an illegal business, cannabis is often viewed as a space run by revolutionaries ready to question the injustices caused by the status quo. This notion has often perpetuated the idea that cannabis and social justice are inseparable, two sides of the same coin.

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However, according to a new report, the cannabis industry is no exception to the general underrepresentation of women and minorities across the U.S. economy.

“Racial and gender diversity in the marijuana industry is still lacking – especially in ownership and managerial positions,” said a new report from the MJBizDaily research team.

Report author Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier notes that social justice initiatives are an integral part of cannabis legalization today, but the solution is still not a magical one.

Are women well represented in cannabis? Not really

According to the MJBizDaily report, only 19% of cannabis companies in Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Ohio are female-owned. In the absence of reliable nationwide data on the subject, the company used these states as examples to create a snapshot of the federal market.

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In Massachusetts, that number is only 5%.

“The lack of access to capital remains a key challenge for women who want to start a plant business regardless of the market,” write the analysts of the report.

The capital requirements needed to start a plant-contact cannabis business can exceed six-digit numbers, and the networks of investors that can raise that amount of money can be difficult for women to tap, the report said.

In 2021, the number of women in leadership positions fell below the national average for the larger U.S. corporate landscape. This applies to almost all branches of the industry.

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This trend had reached an encouraging high in 2019 at 38.6%. However, the number continued to decline to 22.1%.

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich from Pexels

The subsector where this figure is most worrying is the investment side of the industry, where “less than 5% of leadership positions in cannabis-focused investment firms are held by women”, potentially leading to the above-mentioned difficulties in accessing capital for women Entrepreneur.

In relation to regular employment, including non-managerial positions, 41.9% of employees in the sector are women, slightly below the national company average of 46.8%.

Minorities also fall well below average when it comes to cannabis possession

The report looked at Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan to highlight various stages of growth in the cannabis industry, from mature (Colorado) to nascent (Michigan).

In all three states, most of the companies are not minority owned, with whites or Caucasians representing 63% in Nevada, 79% in Michigan, and 83% in Colorado.

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“Colorado, with its leadership in establishing legal cannabis markets, has not considered diversity in the development of its programs.”

In New York, where adult cannabis was approved earlier this year, there appears to be an intention to change the balance, with the stated goal of getting 50% of licenses for adult use to social and economic justice applicants and 40% of the Taxes to be awarded The proceeds flow into a reinvestment fund for community grants.

California announced a similar program on Monday. Marijuana Moment reported that the Golden State is allocating $ 100 million to grant programs in support of marijuana social justice initiatives.

In 2021, minority executives were also very low on the charts, accounting for only 13.1% of total executive positions, which is the average for all US companies.

Only as a source of employment for minorities does the cannabis industry outperform the national average, with 32% of the workforce coming from a minority, compared to just 22% for the economy as a whole.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.