“The world would look like peace if cannabis were legalized internationally,” said Chanda Macias, PhD, a biomedical researcher, medical cannabis trailblazer, and passionate advocate for women and people of color in the industry.
Though the sentiment may sound like a distant dream, if anyone can help move the world in that direction through force of will alone, Macias is that person. She has never been shy about breaking new ground.
For example, when she opened the National Holistic Healing Center (NHHC) in Washington, DC, in 2015, she became the first Black woman to operate a dispensary in the nation’s capital. She also co-founded Ilera Holistic Healthcare, which made history not only as the first licensed cultivator and processor in Louisiana but also by partnering with Southern University to launch the first pharmaceutical-grade hemp and medical cannabis products developed and marketed by a historically Black college or university.
“Patients generally seek medical cannabis as a last form of healthcare, but it should be their first line of healthcare,” she said. “I have seen the wonders it can do for patients.”
Bridging business and cannabis advocacy
Although Macias, her husband, and their four children live in Washington, DC, her roots are buried deep in Louisiana, the first among the southern states to legalize medical cannabis. She was born there and her sister graduated from Southern University, so a business venture in the Bayou State and partnership with the school made sense from both entrepreneurial and emotional perspectives. Nevertheless, establishing a new endeavor so far from her current residence was challenging, she admitted.
“It was a hard decision, because I’m based in the Northeast,” she said. “But it was important to me personally to support my community in Louisiana and assist the African-American community in my birthright state with education about cannabis and how to be future leaders in the industry.”
She served as Ilera’s chief executive officer for three years—long enough to get the company through its initial growing pains—then hired someone to take her place and decamped to the capital to resume research and daily management of NHHC. She maintains an ownership interest in the Louisiana enterprise.
“I came back to the district to help women fight for their healthcare choices,” she said. Changes in the American political and legal landscape over the past few years have fortified her resolve in that regard. “In light of the [November 2024] election, I feel much more strongly that women have the right to cannabis use for their healthcare. The Women Grow platform is essential for those efforts.”
Women Grow is a movement empowering women to pursue leadership roles in the cannabis industry, and Macias is its fiercest champion. Since 2018, she has served as chief executive officer and chairwoman of the board, spearheading the organization’s mission to educate female entrepreneurs and provide the tools and connections that will help them become the next generation of leaders. The organization has impacted more than 50,000 businesswomen and patients since its founding in 2014, she said.
A tireless proponent of educating policymakers about maladies impacting primarily women, Macias also puts significant energy into convincing legislators and other skeptics that plant medicine can provide relief for conditions including menopause, fibromyalgia, and menstrual-related ailments. State legislators who write, support, and enact laws regulating the medical market typically do not include those conditions among the ones eligible for cannabis therapy. In Macias’s view, they’re ignoring the healthcare needs of half the population.
“Everyone who uses cannabis has a condition, whether diagnosed or not, but no state has female-oriented conditions as part of their qualifying conditions for medical marijuana,” she said. “How can female conditions like breast cancer not be included?
“Women are the healthcare providers for our families. Women,” she added. “Women are higher consumers of cannabis than men. So, we need women to speak up about how cannabis can be used as medicine and advocate for women’s rights.”
Addressing gender disparities in cannabis leadership and funding
As ardent as she is about women’s health, she’s no less intense about women’s roles in the cannabis business world. That executive leadership in the industry is dominated primarily by white men—reportedly, only 39 percent of executives in the industry were female in 2023—concerns but does not discourage her. A woman’s place, according to Macias, is in the boardroom.
“That door is not necessarily open to us, but we are pushing through it,” she said. “We are fighting for our rights to be successful in this industry. In the larger world, women still have to fight for our healthcare, places on boards [of directors], and more, but we are not tolerating that anymore.
“We can’t stay here and stay silent,” she added. “We have to demand equality.”
She’s also troubled by disparities in funding between male-led and female-led endeavors. “Less than 3 percent of women [in the cannabis industry] get private funding,” she said.
During a Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in 2024, Macias spoke about creating synergies between women entrepreneurs and companies with financial resources. Participating in large networking events designed to help attendees pursue professional development is essential for entrepreneurial-minded women seeking opportunities in the industry, she said. Benzinga’s conferences and Women Grow’s Leadership Summit are two she recommends.
“A lot of women were able to secure resources” at the Benzinga conference, she revealed. “We are not seeing change overnight but incrementally, little by little. That is synergy. We have to band together and work together to ensure our industry survives.”
The atmosphere Macias wants to create feels like “a sisterhood—a coming together,” she said. “We’re vulnerable, but we’re coming together for support and love.”
However, she noted, that type of synergy is elusive and cannot be manufactured. “The vibe is different when I am attending an all-female conference,” she said. “It’s special. There is also something about daughters. They love so hard. Women love so hard. We are compassionate. The shared bond of our struggle brings us closer together.”
The future of cannabis under a shifting political landscape
Personal and professional closeness with friends, family, and business associates may become more important as the industry progresses through a new federal administration that already seems harsh to many women and people of color. Hispanics are particularly vulnerable, Macias said, even though they represent a growing segment of the American population. According to the 2023 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Spanish is spoken at home by 43.4 million residents aged five and older. That number has doubled since 1990.
In recognition of that reality, “we welcome Spanish speakers [at NHHC and Women Grow] and are dedicated to teaching Spanish to patients and entrepreneurs,” she said. “This last election proved the weight of the Latino and Spanish vote. Their support will be pivotal to the legalization of cannabis.”
She predicts the Trump administration will not be particularly friendly to the industry, despite the president voicing support for adult-use legalization in his home state of Florida during the 2024 campaign. The new president has too many other initiatives underway right now to expend political capital on an industry with less political clout than more established players. From her vantage point near the belly of the federal beast, Macias believes Congress will “slow-roll legalization,” and the Drug Enforcement Administration may be unwilling to reschedule the plant.
In fact, she said, “I foresee increased scrutiny and [prohibitive] legislation.”
She also believes well-funded, politically connected industries like pharmaceuticals and alcohol will attempt to increase their influence on the industry, potentially leading to destabilization. On the other hand, she suggested, moving the plant to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act would provide an opening for Big Pharma to enter the game without running afoul of any federal pharmaceutical regulations. “That’s when legalization will occur,” she said.
The global stage is a different matter. Medical legalization is sweeping across Europe, which, as a scientist, she believes is a good thing. But as the movement spreads, she hopes lawmakers and regulators build in inclusivity from the start. She calls influencing those decisions her “ultimate mission. I’ll do that one person at a time, one nation at a time,” she said.
Global legalization “would look like peace. World peace,” she added. “Cannabis creates an inner calmness and introspection. The global supply chain can be used to help reduce anxiety, stress, [post-traumatic stress disorder], and more.”
Unfortunately, she lamented, “I probably won’t see that in my lifetime.”
