Lit Ventures: Why I Invested in the Women of Weed

I remember the first time I saw it rain in Los Angeles. It was quite a sight. It’s an interesting thing when it rains in LA. The pace slows down. Traffic doesn’t move quite as fast, and as it turns out, a lot of folks seem to work from home when water falls from the sky.

It’s bizarre, but in a weird way, kind of inspiring.

Rain is such a rarity in southern California that when it happens, people seem to appreciate it more. Not just for the things it can do, but for the aesthetics. I actually saw some people tweeting pictures of rain drops on their car windows, taking pleasure in the patterns of beads and streaks.

There’s something very charming about this. As well, this kind of intrigue and fascination with detail serves as an excellent lesson for  cannabis investors.

I actually believe we should look at every cannabis investment opportunity in the same way. Find something that we find fascinating and inspiring, and inspect the details of it with the same passion someone who has never sees rain looks at a raindrop on a car window.

I don’t mean to get all philosophical on you here, but this is a valid observation, and it is the way I treat every investment opportunity I share with investors.

Of course, sometimes, this means that we may invest in something that seems a bit out of the ordinary. Certainly that was the initial response I got when we first started investing in the cannabis space just a few years ago. But as most readers of my analysis know, investing in cannabis has worked out quite well for us—not just for financial reasons, but for ethical reasons as well.

In fact, that was the main reason I invested in a documentary earlier this year called Mary Janes: Women of Weed.

I made an ethical investment.

Mary Janes: The Women of Weed is a feature-length documentary film that follows female entrepreneurs in the cannabis business as they navigate their way through the U.S. cannabis industry.

Now before I go any further, here’s something you should know about the cannabis industry: Women account for nearly 40 percent of all executives in this space. The average for women in executive roles is 22 percent.

Without a doubt, there are few industries that have created more female executives than the cannabis industry. Here, they are the market makers, the gatekeepers and the big money.

Make no mistake, the cannabis industry’s success is due in large part to the female professionals that have taken it from an illegal niche market to a booming behemoth that’s now generating billions of dollars a year in revenue, while providing more than 120,000 jobs throughout the country.

So, when documentary film producer and director Windy Borman learned about this female-dominated industry, she was inspired to create a documentary about these women.

While the idea may have initially sounded like something that wouldn’t garner much interest outside of documentary film nerds and cannabis professionals, it has morphed into one of the most anticipated documentaries of 2017. It has even caught the attention of people like Melissa Etheridge, Willie Nelson and Susan Sarandon—all of whom have also contributed to the making of this documentary.

One of the reasons this movie is getting so much attention is because it’s been designed to change the national conversation on cannabis. Cannabis businesses have championed this movie because it’s going to help the industry move beyond the negative stereotypes often associated with weed.

This is fantastic for those of us who see the social and health benefits of legalization. But removing those stereotypes is also paramount to the success of the legalization effort.  And I couldn’t be happier to be an investor in this movie.

Now next month, Mary Janes: The Women of Weed will premiere during the Mill Valley Film Festival in Mill Valley, California, which is just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It will screen on October 8, starting with a panel at 3:00 p.m. and a reception at 4:20 p.m. The screening will begin at 6:00 p.m., with a concert to follow at 8:00 p.m. 

It’s going to be a fantastic event, so if you’re in the area, do yourself a favor and check it out. You can get more information here.

And here’s the latest trailer for Mary Janes: The Women of Weed.

You can keep up with all of HIGH TIMES’ marijuana news right here.