International Women's History Month at jardin premium cannabis

As the American cannabis industry continues to expand and legalize into every coast and far-off corner of this great nation, it’s of the utmost importance to both acknowledge and deeply respect the contributions and the tireless work of women in the cannabis industry. Admittedly, there’s still ample amounts of progress that still needs to be completed regarding the employment and advancement of women in cannabis.

MJBizDaily’s 2021 Women & Minorities in the Cannabis Industry report indicated that the percentage of women with executive positions in the cannabis industry dropped staggeringly from 36.8 percent in the nostalgic year of 2019 to 22.1 percent in 2021. The rate of women executives in the cannabis industry went up by only a single percentage point in 2022.

Even with the alarming drop in the percentage of women with executive positions in the cannabis industry, the many brilliant and entrepreneurially-focused women who work in the American cannabis industry are making a name for themselves and building quite the remarkable legacy regardless of the percentage drop. Three of Nevada’s biggest cannabis industry and advocacy organizations which are responsible for single-handedly changing state cannabis laws through steadfast advocacy and nurturing this industry via networking, The Chamber of Cannabis, Cannabis Equity and Inclusion Community (CEIC) and Lady Led Collabs, are mostly women-led.

As for the aforementioned MJBizDaily report from 2021, it also indicated that a total of 25 percent of cannabis businesses in Nevada were owned by women. The Silver State was a full six percentage points ahead of Colorado, which took the 2nd place of the five states surveyed. For comparison, Massachusetts has had legal cannabis since November of 2018 yet only five percent of all cannabis businesses in the state are owned by women as of the 2021 report. Standing out from the other surveyed states considerably, Nevada was also five points ahead of the national average of women with executive roles in cannabis at 20 percent.

To celebrate and honor the endless contributions of women in the cannabis industry, a robust industry powered by a female plant itself, Jardin Premium Cannabis Dispensary recently hosted an event featuring three extremely influential and successful women in cannabis. The unique event involved a podcast recording, a thought-provoking question and answer session and a thorough tour around the award-winning dispensary that’s primarily women-led itself.

The three powerful women from varied ethnic and professional backgrounds who were featured on the podcast and Q&A session were equally renowned and esteemed in cannabis industry and culture. From retail to cultivation to marketing and strongly largescale personal advocacy for the plant, a wide variety of perspectives and experience-based viewpoints on the cannabis plant were shared.

Tammy Pettigrew, MBA, a graduate of the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School and cannabis educator/consultant as well as Founder of the Cannabis Cutie brand, comes from a strong personal and professional background of athletics. From why she went to college and to what subjects she majored in at Oklahoma State University and even her graduate studies at University of Miami which featured many athletes, all of those defining decisions were made because of sports.

“I lived sports, I married sports, I played sports.” Pettigrew explained. “And so for me, cannabis was always a part of my life in the background. Now, I am not only a cannabis educator but I’m bringing that part of my life that has not been in the public into what I do now. I’m going to start a cannabis sports podcast where we bridge these two worlds.”

From a combination of religiously attending cannabis networking events to find her place in this new frontier of an industry and deeply informative Instagram videos about cannabis and advocacy for the plant, Pettigrew’s platform and experience rapidly grew to the size it is now.

Serving as Store Director of Jardin Premium Cannabis Dispensary for nearly two years now after a decade of experience in cannabis, Brittney Agoncillo has led Jardin through many exciting chapters, many star-studded events which had philanthropic elements

BY: JOSH KASOFF

and promotions that were wholly unique to the cannabis industry. Given that Jardin is a heavily women-run operation, Agoncillo provides an excellent perspective into the topics discussed during the event.

“We were wrapping up International Women’s History Month (March) and we wanted to finish it with powerful women in the cannabis industry who are trailblazers, activists and frontline staff that are supporting our community and this industry as a whole.” Agoncillo explained. “When you bring people like that together, you’re able to create examples of what you can be and do when we collaborate together versus dividing.”

The third esteemed woman in cannabis on the panel was Priscilla Vilchis. Vilchis, who’s been featured in multiple articles as well as the cover of Vegas Cannabis Magazine May of 2019 issue, is truly a trailblazer and history maker for the cannabis industries in Nevada and California. In 2014, not only did Vilchis become the youngest person to receive a cannabis cultivation license at only 27 years old and also the first Latina to receive a license in Nevada. Since then, the wildly Prime Produce brand is cultivated in a state-of-the-art 25,000 square foot facility and has become well known across the Las Vegas Valley. From a successful career in healthcare and laboratory testing with an endless number of clients across Southern California, Vilchis has since become a power player in Nevada and California cannabis who holds the regal moniker of the HollyWeed Queen among numerous other accolades.

When working in her previous field, Vilchis saw firsthand all the heartbreaking and dangerous ways that pharmaceutical medicine patients would either abuse their medication or sell their prescription. In cannabis, she saw the professional change that she wanted and assembled an excellent team for a wholly plant-based product undeniably safer than most pharmaceuticals.

“I think if we were to decriminalize cannabis and utilize it a lot more in capsules and medications, a lot of people would veer away from opioids. It shouldn’t be a taboo anymore.” Vilchis envisions total medical normalization of cannabis and having cannabis be completely on par procedurally with pharmaceutical medicines, including medical insurance companies covering the costs of those cannabis-based medications.

Unity as professional women and motivating each other in cannabis was certainly an overarching theme of the entire event. During the podcast recording hosted by Pettigrew in particular, the women featured mentioned the many societal hurdles they had to overcome in order to reach the levels of success that they have. Agoncillo stressed the importance of women working together, especially in an industry still very much in its infancy.

“With cannabis, it’s a brand new industry.” Pettigrew said. “We have the opportunity to make it as equitable as possible, but it has to be done with intention. Typically when these cannabis business events are rolled out, they are for the business owners who happen to be predominately male. What Jardin did is that they intentionally sought out powerful women who are examples in this industry and brought them together with other people to hear their story and give them an opportunity to see them shine.”

“When it comes to highlighting women in this industry,” Pettigrew continued, “I believe that it’s necessary that other women who are thinking about getting in the industry get to have access to people who are already here. We’re in the beginning and we need it to be as equitable as possible. Women are very talented and we need their talent in cannabis.”

“The reason I took this podcast up is because I’m all about supporting women.” Vilchis said. “I think it’s imperative for us to lift each other. I enjoy doing events like that all the time, especially if I’m able to motivate any woman.”

Another very fitting reason why it was relevant to have the event hosted at Jardin is that Agoncillo mentioned that 80 percent of Jardin’s staff are women, and women who are incredibly knowledgeable in the subject of cannabis at that. As a leader in cannabis, Agoncillo wants to create a space and an industry where women don’t have to make the daunting choice of either motherhood or advancement in the cannabis industry.

Vilchis complimented Jardin and the excellent mostly women-run store with dozens of awards to its name and how monumental it is for the cannabis industry.

“By having women taking these large leadership positions, it sets the bar.” Vilchis explained. “Everyone in the industry talks about Jardin and it’s because of those women. It’s their marketing, the way they are with their employees. It’s smaller than other dispensaries, but they’re doing such a great job because they have the right infrastructure. I would say it’s one of the best dispensaries in Nevada and it’s because of the people there and the employees running it.”

Despite the drop in sales and the current financial and employment-related slumps that states across the American cannabis industry find themselves in, Agoncillo is remaining optimistic and sees the absolutely priceless value in hosting events such as this.

“Maybe we’re not at the end of this journey.” Agoncillo hypothesized. “Maybe, we’re at the beginning. Maybe we should keep pumping this until the water fully runs on its own. By having these conversations and tying it back to sitting down and being able to talk about these things, we’re able to create awareness and knowledge and then disperse that to the community where now women feel even more encouraged to join this industry.

Women have stepped up to show that they are leaders and they can lead in this space. I think that we’ve stepped up by showing compassion, understanding and being able to take care of the people who walk through our doors. We’ve been able to step up in this industry and prove we’re incredible leaders in this space. Because we’re always giving back and tying it back to cannabis.”

An interesting point that Pettigrew brought up was that women have been showcasing and supporting the medicinal benefits of cannabis decades before any recreational dispensaries opened up. One such historic example of a medical cannabis activist was Mary Rathbun, more famously known as “Brownie Mary”. Starting as early as the late 1970’s, Rathbun would volunteer at local hospitals in San Francisco and deliver homemade brownies with cannabis oil to the increasingly startling number of patients suffering from the then mostly unknown yet horribly stigmatized disease of HIV/AIDS.

One of the ways mentioned during the Q&A session and in the follow-up interview with Agoncillo about ways in which the cannabis industry could include more women, many interesting points were brought up. The Store Director of Jardin Premium Cannabis Dispensary emphasized that cannabis companies need to open more opportunities for women and brands and vendors need to focus more on female demographics from a marketing standpoint. Also, women in cannabis frequently have to deal with male customers who inexplicably refuse to believe an informed budtender’s recommendations if said budtender is female.

“When you have women step into these roles, it allows other people to look at the plant differently.” Pettigrew mentioned. “Women come from a place of more compassion and higher emotional intelligence. So when I think it comes to changing the stigma and pushing the plant forward and leading in a different way, I think this is where innovation and things we’ve never seen before begin to happen.”

A noteworthy piece of advice that Vilchis brought up was to always have a dedicated team with you consisting of informed professionals and especially including a lawyer and a CFO or other financial professional. Vilchis would also like to eventually see more women holding positions of business ownership and vested interest in cannabis businesses and operations. She also stressed the importance of being vigilant when it comes to predatory investors who seem initially caring and helpful but carry heavy ulterior motives. Ultimately, Vilchis believes that the business owners themselves need to make more of a conscientious effort in doing their part to offer ample opportunities to promote women within their cannabis businesses.

“This is a very feminine plant and I think we have to look at this a little differently.” Pettigrew said. “We can’t run it like a typical business because it hasn’t been working. So we have to think outside of the box and have a new perspective. The female perspective for a female plant in my mind is a winning combination.”

Agoncillo perfectly summarized both the event honoring International Women’s History Month and women’s contributions to the American cannabis industry as well.

“Real queens fix each other’s crowns.”