Marijuana has come a long way.
In just a few short years, the drug has gone from being banned throughout the United States to holding some legal status for the majority of Americans.
As of April 20, four states have legalized recreational use of cannabis and 23 allow marijuana to be prescribed for medical use.
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But marijuana hasn’t shed its reputation as a subversive gateway drug in the collective American consciousness on its own.
For years, investors, entrepreneurs, advocates and researchers have been pushing the dialogue on marijuana forward, helping to back well-heeled campaigns aimed at changing hearts, minds and laws around the country.
International Business Times identified 20 of the most influential people in the marijuana industry, as chosen by their peers. The list represents the industry in advocacy, business and research and is made up of people who those in the marijuana business say are driving the industry forward.
It includes names as recognizable as Sen. Rand Paul, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as well as industry insiders such as Ethan Nadelmann, Brian Vicente and Dr. Trista Ghosh. These people were chosen by industry stalwarts who are journalists, business owners, investors, medical professionals and activists, all of whom have years of experience in the industry and make their living in some way from it.
Business: Troy Dayton and Stephen DeAngelo
Troy Dayton and Stephen DeAngelo know what it takes to get investors and business owners talking marijuana – and shaking hands.
As co-founders of the ArcView Group, an investor network and research firm launched in 2010 and based in Oakland, California, CEO Dayton and DeAngelo, the president, help marijuana entrepreneurs find venture capital. On Green Street, knowing how to get high is an asset, not a liability.
Many pot enthusiasts looking to start a business in the legal weed market are unfamiliar with raising capital. “Cannabis entrepreneurs don’t have as much experience as others working with investors,” says DeAngelo. ArcView helps them develop pitches, interact with venture capitalists and close deals.
The group hosts conferences to get people with marijuana business ideas shaking hands with financiers. The conferences were not an immediate success. “For the first two or three conferences, nobody wrote a check,” says DeAngelo. “Now, when a compelling company with a good pitch leaves the stage, they are trailed by three, four, five investors who are eager to have the first conversation with them.”
In 2014, the first full year there was a legal recreational marijuana market and the year that pot shops opened in Colorado and Washington state, total marijuana sales reached $2.7 billion. That’s a 74 percent increase over the medicinal marijuana market that existed in 2013. It’s the fastest growing industry in the U.S., according to market experts, and the possibilities seem endless.
“This isn’t like the tech boom, where you had innovation that was driving market adoption,” says Dayton. “In this industry, it’s much more similar to the opening of China or the fall of the Berlin Wall because you’re talking about people who are willing to break the law in the millions to get at a particular product. That just doesn’t happen very often in modern history.”
Advocacy: Brian Vicente
After graduating from law school, Brian Vicente began a career defending medical marijuana patients, people suffering from AIDS and cancer.
They were finding some relief from pot at a time when the law offered few protections for pot users. “Many were still being harassed by police, losing their jobs, having their kids taken away,” says the Denver attorney, a partner with Vicente Sederberg LLC, also known as the Marijuana Law Firm. “That really launched my career.”
Today, Vicente is recognized throughout the marijuana industry as a standard-bearer of the modern pot movement. He carries its central message – that the real crime isn’t using pot illegally but rather the criminalization of pot – to lawmakers and into courtrooms. He also was instrumental in the 2012 passage of Colorado’s Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana.
That legislation, along with Washington state’s Initiative 502, became a paradigm for lawmakers around the country – and maybe even globally – who are considering their own legalization measures. “Colorado showed that marijuana legalization was possible,” says Vicente. “At my office, we have folks get in touch every week, elected officials from across the world, who are interested in what Colorado is doing.”
The marijuana industry has come a long way since Colorado’s first pot shops opened their doors in January 2014. One year later, banks still shy away from working with the industry, and many pot businesses have troubles filing taxes. Still, there has been improvement. "We really don’t face the same existential threat from the federal government that we faced previously,” says Vicente. “The fear a couple of years ago was that the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] would parachute into Colorado and start making arrests. I think we’ve reached that tipping point, if you will, where public opinion is really clear on this topic.
Business: Wanda James
For Wanda James, entering the marijuana industry was about making a political statement. “Social justice,” she says.
Seeing her brother serve around a decade in the criminal justice system for what she calls “$120 worth of weed” pushed her to enter the industry, first as the co-owner of a dispensary and later as a restaurateur and head of an advocacy organization. Up next she and her husband will be opening a marijuana cooking school.
As one of the few black women in an industry heavily dominated by white men, James, a former Navy lieutenant and political campaign manager, and her husband Scott Durrah, a former Marine and certified chef, felt that they could provide examples of the kind of people who were involved in the industry and be a catalyst for further change with regard to marijuana policy in the U.S.
“We wanted to step out and say this has got to change and we’ve got to stop arresting people for cannabis,” says James, 51.
As director of the Cannabis Global Initiative she’s excited about the Obama administration’s embrace of medical marijuana and the future of the industry in the upcoming year.
“For the first time a president is coming out in favor of medical marijuana and in favor of social justice for marijuana. That’s a huge step ” says James. “I think that Barack Obama’s administration can be looked at as moving this whole thing forward.”
See the rest of the story at Business Insider