Nina Parks bought a VIP ticket for her first cannabis business conference in early 2015.

It was so expensive, I thought, I dont even know how Im going to pay for this, she said, but she was new to the industry and hoped the meet-and-greet would offer networking opportunities with like-minded owners and operators in the growing medicinal market.

I walked into that room, and I saw Amber, and she was the only one who had weed and the only woman of color, Parks said.

Amber Senter, an entrepreneur and consultant in the business, was also the only woman of color on any of the conferences panels, which delivered industry insight to an audience that seemed to have little personal or political investment in the plant and a lot more money to spend than those who did.

I was like, what is going on? Is this what the industry looks like? Its just white men in suits! Park recalls asking Senter. Many, many, many white men in suits.

This was not a reflection of the industry as they knew it. Parks and Senter were based in California, which became the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana in 1996 . In 2013, the Justice Department under President Barack Obama , in a document known as the Cole memo, limited federal intervention in state-level legalization. The Green Rush hurtled toward the Golden State, and it was mostly white and male .