Losing her job at a dispensary was a massive shock to Justine. Her career goal always had been to involve herself in the cannabis industry.

To provide support, Justine’s friend Shawnae visited. While there, Justine’s life partner, Cole (host of The Chillinois Podcast), brought up the idea to start a company that capitalized on the legalization of adult-use cannabis, as well as Shawnae’s background as a chef.

“We decided to start a business that would cater to private events and offer educational classes in creating your own infused desserts and oils at home,” Justine said. “Once Covid hit, I realized that the idea of being in someone’s home or offering to cater to large gatherings was not as viable as it had been when we initially started the business. We decided to change our direction and make it more about supporting other women in the cannabis industry.”

So Justine and Shawnae created CannaKweens.

CannaKweens mission is to provide an open and welcoming platform for women in the Midwest cannabis market to come together and network.

“We focus primarily on women but are open to all gender identities who would like to participate,” Justine said. “A big goal of ours is to eventually facilitate conferences with various speakers and other large networking events to bring all of our Cannakweens together.”

CannaKweens sets out to collaborate with its members to find out what is most important to the members within the realm of cannabis to set goals for the future that will make members proud to call themselves Cannakweens.

Submitted photo

Cannakweens was inspired by The Canna Boss Babes and Women Grow.

These organizations aim to uplift and empower women in the cannabis industry throughout the United States.

For now, memberships are free of charge!

The name Cannakweens came about from a nickname that one of Justine’s patients at the dispensary had given her (canna queen or cannabis queen).

“We went with the unconventional spelling of “kween” to honor our love of the Comedy Central show, Broad City, in which one of the main characters (Ilana) lovingly refers to every woman as kween,” said Justine.

In the future, Cannakweens wants to feature and promote events from different women-owned companies in the Midwest cannabis market.

“When it’s safe, we’d love to attend events that we can stream live on our Instagram page @cannakweensco and interview various vendors and business leaders about their background and what inspires them,” Justine said.

For now, most of Justine and Shawnae’s work on Cannakweens has been behind the scenes, such as creating a website and networking with women in the industry or who want to be in the industry.

“We’re hoping to kick things off in a big way once we can safely host events,” Justine said.

For more information, check out Cannakweens’ website, Instagram, or sign up for Cannakweens weekly newsletter.

For a free membership to Cannakweens, contact Justine at info@cannakweens.com.

For an interview with Cole at The Chillinois Podcast, click here.