Photo courtesy of Mary Pryor
Mary Pryor is a ganja queen who is taking a stand and fighting to revolutionize the cannabis industry by elevating the voices of people of color who enjoy cannabis products.
Mary Pryor is a co-founder of Cannaclusive, a company created to facilitate fair representation of minority cannabis consumers. Pryor’s Cannaclusive story begins when she moved from New York to Los Angeles. She relocated cross-county in order to have access to legal marijuana to treat chronic pain caused by her medical condition, Crohn's disease. After realizing the challenges of breaking into the cannabis industry, she decided to put her foot down and created Cannaclusive to establish “spaces and things for people like us – educated, driven women of color who enjoy the healing benefits of cannabis.”
Succeeding as a young black woman in an industry largely dominated by white men comes with its challenges. Marijuana’s long standing racist history reflects in today’s numbers. Sixteen states (including Washington D.C.) across the nation have legalized recreational use of the once villainized herb, allowing the industry’s growth prediction for 2024 to land over $130 billion. But in 2017, only 19% of the marijuana business was owned by racial minorities. Although some time has passed since this study, the racial inequity of ownership in this business is still glaring.
By offering branding, public relations, and journalism consulting services, Cannaclusive has taken a seat at the table in this white dominated leafy economic boom. Moreover, in an effort to fight stigmatization around cannabis, this company is a resource for its clients to obtain stock images of diverse groups of people enjoying cannabis products to advertise a more inclusive atmosphere surrounding them.
Pryor’s vision is to celebrate the diverse cultures of the thriving cannabis community through curated experiences, groundbreaking insights, thoughtful content and dynamic visuals. Her mission is to ensure that minority consumers are not an after-thought by connecting with cannabis brands and making it easier to communicate with diverse audiences.