Weed Entrepreneurs Woo Women In Bid To End The Ganja Gender Gap
When Jazmin Hupp was searching for a container for her marijuana at the Cannabis Cup trade show in Denver, all she could find were boring, utilitarian glass jars.
So she asked a vendor at one of the booths if he had anything more elegant. He offered to make her a jar in pink.
Her immediate conclusion: “You guys need some help.”
Hupp’s experience may shed some light on why women account for only about a third of heavy and moderate cannabis users, even as they make up about half of occasional consumers, according to the Brightfield Group, a market-research firm. Women like Hupp say that’s partly because current pot purveyors aren’t offering the products they want and are marketing in ways that annoy them.
She’s now among a group of entrepreneurs seeking to close the ganja gender gap, which represents a huge sales opportunity in an industry that researcher ArcView projects will grow more than sevenfold to $21 billion in the next five years.
Winning over women will require more than just churning out pink bongs. Women use marijuana differently, often preferring alternatives to lighting up joints. Health foods like cannabis-infused juices and raw salads are becoming increasingly popular, as are creams and salves containing the drug. For women who still want to inhale their pot, vaporizers have become the go-to method.
