Women Are Shaping Minnesota's Cannabis Industry

How to Support the Women Who Are Shaping Minnesota's Cannabis Industry

Minnesota's legal cannabis market is still being written. The first non-tribal recreational dispensaries only opened their doors in the fall of 2025, the rules are still settling, and the question of what this industry will actually feel like — welcoming or intimidating, rooted in care or built purely on the transaction — hasn't been answered yet. That's a rare and fleeting window. And across the state, from the Twin Cities suburbs to the Northwest Angle, women are stepping into it.

That's the throughline of a recent Strib Voices commentary in the Minnesota Star Tribune by Clemon Dabney, who makes a point worth sitting with: legalization created a market in Minnesota, but women are helping create its culture. They're opening dispensaries focused on wellness and education, launching brands built around science and trust, and quietly setting the tone for what this market becomes — even as they remain underrepresented in cannabis ownership, capital, and executive power.

As a Minnesota-made, woman-founded brand ourselves, this is personal for us at 23rd State. So let's talk about who these women are, why their leadership matters far beyond optics, and the specific, practical ways you can show up for them.

First, a little about us — because we're one of the businesses we're asking you to support. 23rd State is a woman-owned, Minnesota-based hemp-derived THC beverage company founded by Leah Kollross, and our drinks — including Fresh Press and SHAKE — are built on a simple, evidence-forward idea: a social drink can be genuinely better-for-you, hold its own at any table, and skip the hangover entirely. Being woman-owned isn't a label we tack on; it shapes how we build. It's why we lead with the science, why we'd rather earn your trust than chase hype, and why we care so much about who gets to define what cannabis beverages look and feel like in this state. When women own the brands, not just staff them, the whole category gets more honest, more welcoming, and more rooted in care. You can find us online at 23state.com, where you can shop our lineup and track down a stockist near you, and on shelves and menus at a growing list of retailers, liquor stores, bars, breweries, and restaurants across Minnesota.

Women Aren't Just Working in Minnesota Cannabis — They're Building It

It's easy to picture women in cannabis as budtenders, educators, or caregivers — visible, valued, but rarely positioned as the architects of the industry. The reality on the ground in Minnesota is starting to look different.

In Warroad, a small town pressed up against the Canadian border, Brittney Peterson has been moving Lot W Dispensary through the state's application and inspection gauntlet to open her doors. As the Star Tribune reported, she frames her reason for getting into cannabis around people rather than product — the cancer patients, the veterans managing PTSD, the folks stepping away from alcohol, the people quietly wrestling with anxiety who've told her this is about healing, not just recreation. She also named something many women in business recognize instantly: she's frequently asked whether her husband or partner is the one really running things.

In the Twin Cities, sisters Shayna Hoechst and Erin Pash built Pot Mama's, a boutique dispensary concept with locations in Edina and Mendota Heights and a license that allows for up to five stores across the state. Their pitch is deliberate: a design-forward, education-first space built for cannabis-curious people — women, especially — who have always felt intimidated or out of place in a traditional smoke-shop environment. The goal, as Hoechst has described it, is somewhere you can ask questions and learn without judgment, where the staff is trained to guide rather than upsell.

In Anoka, Stephanie Rietz serves as general manager of the Anoka Cannabis Company, the first municipally owned-and-operated dispensary in the country — a model where revenue flows back into parks, roads, and city services instead of private investors. It's a reminder that women are also stepping into operational leadership in entirely new kinds of cannabis businesses.

And in the product world, Leah Kollross founded 23rd State right here in Minnesota, building a hemp-derived THC beverage company on an evidence-forward, alcohol-alternative philosophy — the idea that a better-for-you drink can hold its own at the table without the hangover or the haze. Women like Leah are shaping the consumer-facing side of cannabis just as much as the retail counter, deciding what these products taste like, how they're talked about, and who feels invited to try them.

These founders don't all speak the same way or run the same kind of business. What they share, as Dabney observes, is an understanding that cannabis is a relationship business as much as a retail one — they're building companies where the sale isn't the whole story.

Why Women in Cannabis Leadership Actually Matters

It would be easy to file all of this under "nice to see" and move on. That would be a mistake. There are real, structural reasons why women shaping this particular industry, at this particular moment, carries weight.

The numbers tell an uncomfortable story

Cannabis is often cast as more progressive than legacy industries, and on paper there's a version of that story. The most recent comprehensive industry surveys from MJBizDaily found that women held roughly 39% of executive positions in cannabis as of 2023 — higher than the national average across all U.S. businesses, and a rebound from a pandemic-era dip to around 22%.

But look one layer down and the picture changes. In that same period, women owned only about 16% of cannabis businesses — and that ownership figure had actually fallen. By other industry estimates, women make up only around 8% of cannabis CEOs, and own roughly one in five cannabis businesses nationwide. Trade publications tracking these trends into 2026 have noted that if the upward movement in leadership holds, this could finally be a milestone year — but the gap between holding a title and owning the company remains stubborn.

In other words: women are increasingly running cannabis companies, but far less often owning them. And ownership is where the real power, equity, and generational wealth live.

Capital is the wall most people don't see

The single biggest barrier surfaces again and again in this data and in the Star Tribune's reporting: access to capital. Cannabis is brutally expensive to enter — license fees, compliant build-outs, security, testing, real estate — and because cannabis is still federally complicated, traditional bank lending and small-business pathways are limited. That forces founders toward private investors, and the investor world has a well-documented habit of funding women at a fraction of the rate it funds men.

That legacy doesn't politely disappear at the dispensary door. As the Star Tribune piece lays out, it follows women founders straight into loan meetings, investor pitches, and build-out budgets. The support these entrepreneurs are actually asking for isn't another empowerment panel or a round of applause — it's capital, mentorship, legal help, media exposure, child care, technical training, and networks that function like real infrastructure. They're not asking to be celebrated. They're asking for the tools to build.

The culture being set right now will harden

Here's the part that makes this urgent rather than merely interesting. Minnesota's cannabis market is still, in Dabney's memorable phrase, "soft clay." The earliest operators are the ones teaching the public what this industry is allowed to be — whether buying cannabis feels clinical or warm, intimidating or welcoming, extractive or genuinely rooted in care.

Whoever shapes those first impressions shapes the norms for everyone who comes after. When women lead with education, wellness, harm reduction, and a relationship-first ethos — when a nervous first-timer can walk into a shop like Pot Mama's and actually ask the "dumb" question — that becomes the template. Representation at this stage isn't symbolic. It's foundational. The clay is wet now; it won't be for long.

The Barriers Are Real and Worth Naming Out Loud

Supporting women in cannabis starts with being honest about what they're up against, because the obstacles are specific.

Being underestimated. The "is your husband involved?" question that Brittney Peterson described isn't a one-off. It's a recurring tax that women founders pay — having their competence, ownership, and authority quietly questioned in rooms where men aren't asked the same thing. It's exhausting, and it shapes who feels welcome enough to even try.

The funding gap. As above, this is the big one. When investors and lenders default to backing men, women are pushed toward self-funding, slower growth, or simply not launching at all. Every woman-owned cannabis business that opens did so by climbing over a wall that was taller for her.

Thin infrastructure. Mentorship, legal guidance, technical training, and peer networks make or break a new business — and historically, the rooms where that knowledge gets passed around have been male-dominated. That's exactly why the women-led networks springing up across Minnesota matter so much (more on those in a moment).

The retention problem. Industry data shows women can gain executive ground and still see ownership numbers slide. Getting women in isn't the same as keeping them, growing them, and helping them own equity. Support has to be sustained, not seasonal.

None of this is a reason for pessimism. Minnesota's founders are opening anyway. But naming the barriers clearly is what turns vague goodwill into useful action — which brings us to the part you actually came here for.

How to Support Women in Minnesota's Cannabis Space

You don't need to be an investor or an industry insider to make a difference. Here are concrete ways to show up, roughly in order of how directly they move the needle.

1. Spend your money with women-owned businesses

This is the most immediate lever you have. Every purchase is a vote for the kind of market you want to exist. Seek out women-owned dispensaries like Pot Mama's and Lot W, and look for woman-founded brands on the shelf and on the menu — including, yes, 23rd State and our Fresh Press and SHAKE beverages. When you're at a dispensary, bar, brewery, or restaurant, ask which brands are women-owned and choose accordingly. Demand is the clearest signal a young market receives, and it directly answers the capital problem: revenue is the cheapest, least dilutive funding a founder can get.

2. Amplify them — exposure is a named need

Media exposure showed up explicitly on the list of what women founders are asking for, and amplification is free. Follow Minnesota's women-owned cannabis businesses on social media. Share their launches and milestones. Leave honest, generous reviews on Google and Yelp — reviews are a real ranking and trust factor for small businesses. Tag friends. Recommend a woman-owned shop when someone asks where to go. Word of mouth is the original growth engine, and it costs you nothing but a few seconds of attention.

3. Put capital to work — if you can

If you have the means, this is where you can do the most good. That might mean angel investing or joining a community-capital effort aimed at underrepresented founders. It might mean choosing women-owned vendors and suppliers if you run a business. It might mean something as simple as buying a gift card, pre-ordering, or backing a crowdfunding campaign. You don't have to be a venture fund to help close a funding gap — you just have to be intentional about where your dollars land.

4. Plug into — and support — the networks doing the work

Minnesota has a growing ecosystem of organizations built specifically to give women in cannabis the infrastructure they've been missing. A few worth knowing:

Minnesota Women's Cannabusiness Network (MWCN) — A networking community connecting women entrepreneurs, executives, workers, and advocates with resources, opportunities, and exposure. It grew out of work by Blunt Strategies, a women-owned Minnesota cannabis PR and consulting firm, and is built on a "if you win, we all win" ethos.
Minnesota Women's Cannabis Collective (MNWCC) — A community of women entrepreneurs focused on creating economic opportunity and breaking down barriers to entry in the state's cannabis industry.
Women Grow — A national organization founded in 2014 to develop female leadership in cannabis, now paired with the Women Grow Foundation, a nonprofit providing funding access, mentorship, and advocacy.
Women in Cannabis Association (WICA) — A national group offering mentorship and resources tailored to the specific challenges women face in the industry.

Whether you're a woman building a business, an ally who wants to mentor, or a sponsor who can fund a scholarship or an event, these are the doors to knock on. Attend a meetup. Volunteer your expertise — legal, financial, marketing, design. Sponsor a gathering. Mentorship and networks are exactly the "real infrastructure" founders said they need, and they're built one relationship at a time.

5. Get involved in policy and advocacy

The rules governing Minnesota cannabis are still being shaped, and social-equity provisions, licensing structures, and capital-access programs all affect whether women and other underrepresented founders can actually compete. Pay attention to what the Office of Cannabis Management and the Legislature are doing. Support social-equity efforts. National advocacy bodies like the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) work on the policy backbone that determines who gets a fair shot — and who gets left behind. Policy is unglamorous, but it's where the playing field is either leveled or tilted.

6. If you're a woman thinking about entering — start

Maybe the most important form of support is becoming one of these founders yourself. The networks above exist precisely to help you navigate licensing, find mentors, and build the connections that de-risk the leap. Minnesota's market is young enough that there's still room to help define it. The clay is still soft. As Calandra Revering, a Minnesota attorney who set out to open a Black woman-owned dispensary, has put it, the hope is that someone walks in, sees what she built, and thinks: I can do this too. That ripple is its own kind of infrastructure.

Where 23rd State Stands

We're not a neutral observer here, and we won't pretend to be. 23rd State exists because Leah Kollross saw a gap — a chance to build something evidence-forward, Minnesota-made, and genuinely better-for-you in a category that too often runs on hype. Being woman-founded isn't a marketing line for us; it's the lived reality of building in an industry that doesn't always make room.

So when we say support the women shaping Minnesota cannabis, we mean it as participants, not spectators. We're rooting for the dispensary owners in Warroad and Edina, the operators in Anoka, the founders sketching out their first product line at a kitchen table, and the networks holding it all together. A rising, more equitable Minnesota cannabis industry isn't a threat to any one of us. It's the whole point.

The Bottom Line

Minnesota got something most states didn't: a chance to build a cannabis industry from close to scratch, with the benefit of watching everyone else's mistakes. The women opening dispensaries, launching brands, and organizing networks across this state are treating that chance as the opportunity it is — to make cannabis welcoming, science-grounded, community-rooted, and worth trusting.

They're doing it against real headwinds: a funding system that underfunds them, an old assumption that a man must be in charge, and the simple difficulty of being early. Which is exactly why support has to be active. Spend with them. Amplify them. Fund them if you can. Join the networks. Push for fair policy. And if you're a woman with an idea, let this be your sign.

The market is set. The culture is still up for grabs. Let's make sure the people shaping it are the ones building something worth keeping.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there women-owned cannabis dispensaries in Minnesota? Yes. Women-owned and women-led dispensaries in Minnesota include Pot Mama's (Edina and Mendota Heights), founded by sisters Shayna Hoechst and Erin Pash, and Lot W Dispensary in Warroad, owned by Brittney Peterson. The number of women-owned cannabis businesses in the state continues to grow as the market matures.

Why are women underrepresented in the cannabis industry? The biggest barrier is access to capital. Cannabis is expensive to enter and federally complicated, which limits traditional bank lending and pushes founders toward private investors — who historically fund women at far lower rates than men. Women also face being underestimated and a shortage of the mentorship and networks that help new businesses survive.

How can I support women-owned cannabis businesses in Minnesota? Shop with women-owned dispensaries and woman-founded brands, leave reviews and amplify them on social media, invest or buy gift cards if you can, join or support women-in-cannabis networks, and back fair social-equity policy. Demand and exposure are two of the most direct forms of help.

What organizations support women in Minnesota's cannabis industry? Local groups include the Minnesota Women's Cannabis Collective (MNWCC). National organizations include Women Grow and its foundation, and the Women in Cannabis Association (WICA), all of which offer networking, mentorship, and advocacy.

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