Women Making Huge Strides in Pot Business

Apparently there is an unusual trend going on in Colorado's booming marijuana industry. More and more women are running the businesses. And it doesn't make a difference whether it's retail pot shops, manufacturing edible products infused with cannabis or working in testing labs. At the first-ever Colorado Cannabis Summit held last week in Denver, the entire panel of local experts on safety and technology was made up of women. "I like to call them the marijuana mavens," said Brooke Gehring, a former mortgage banker who now owns four pot stores in Colorado. "It blows my mind, the incredible women I've met in this industry," said Genifer Murray, founder and CEO of CannLabs, a state-certified lab that tests the potency and safety of recreational pot products. Murray said so many women have come into the industry that even though they often compete against each other, they're starting a group called Women Grow to mentor the next generation of female cannabis entrepreneurs.

The reasons that so many women are attracted to the industry are varied - possibly customers feel more comfortable dealing with a woman, especially when the business is trying to shake its shady image. Another reason, says Jaime Lewis, chief operating officer of Good Chemistry, "I think it starts from the compassionate side of medical marijuana. (Women are) able to take care of people and allow them an alternative way to medicate outside of pharmaceuticals and what their doctors were recommending for them."

As vendors begin pitching their services to the marijuana industry, others still shy away—and not even a woman's touch can change that. Murray said it took her 10 phone calls to find a waste management company willing to take her trash, and some scientific companies refuse to sell her lab equipment. "Shame on them," she said. "It's going to be a billion-dollar industry."