America’s legal marijuana industry has a huge diversity problem—and it couldn’t be more ironic.
The Drug Policy Alliance estimates that less than 1% of the market to grow legal weed is owned or operated by people of color, a startling statistic considering millions of African-American and Hispanic men have been sent to prison for selling the same drug. This has been a trend since the national war on drugs began more than 40 years ago.
And yet investors are buzzing about the future of the budding retail sale of cannabis, thanks to a recent analysis from the esteemed financial research firm Cowen & Company: It estimates marijuana legalization could grow into a $50 billion industry in the next 10 years, which is partly contingent on more states making medicinal and recreational pot use legal. [Read more at Fortune]