Editor’s observe: This text was initially revealed on Forbes in January 2025. It has been up to date in Might 2025 to replicate new developments, together with Brittney Griner’s canceled look on the Ladies Develop summit.
“I believed within the plant, even when everybody advised me I used to be throwing my life away,” says Dr. Chanda Macias.
Macias stands out within the hashish house as a scientist, entrepreneur and trailblazer. Because the CEO of Nationwide Holistic Therapeutic Heart in Washington, D.C., she turned the primary Black lady to open and function a medical hashish dispensary on the East Coast. However her journey wasn’t straightforward.
Raised in a working-class household, Macias turned a single mom as a youngster when her son’s father was incarcerated in the course of the peak of the warfare on medication. “Nobody ever thought that I used to be going to go to school,” she remembers. But, she enrolled at Howard College, the place she found a ardour for science. “Sure, I used to be working two jobs and elevating a child, however I fell in love with science,” she says.
As Macias pursued cancer-related analysis, she started noticing the plant’s potential. “It was frequent data that in the event you had most cancers, you needed to discover somebody to get marijuana,” she explains. Regardless of its illegality, hashish was already a quiet staple of symptom aid in her group.
She delved into rising analysis, particularly research out of Israel, and approached school about integrating hashish into her work. “He stated, ‘It is unlawful.’ And I am like, ‘We’re scientists,'” she remembers.
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Though direct hashish analysis was off-limits, Macias pivoted to prostate most cancers research. She later joined Colgate-Palmolive as a scientist, however the want to return to hashish by no means left. When D.C. introduced its medical dispensary licensing course of in 2012, she instantly stated, “I am doing this.”
She drained her financial savings, stopped paying her mortgage and moved right into a small condo together with her household to afford a lease. “I misplaced my home, however I believed in myself and the plant,” she says. Her preliminary landlord backed out, and it took years of advocacy to safe a location. Throughout that point, Macias traveled to Africa to steer infectious illness analysis.
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In 2015, she returned to the U.S. after regulators warned her license could be revoked except she opened inside 60 days. With assist from D.C. cultivator Corey Barnett, who bought her a single ounce of hashish on credit score, she opened Nationwide Holistic Therapeutic Heart with 13 sufferers and furnishings from her condo.
Her work expanded past D.C. In Louisiana, Southern College tapped Macias to rescue its struggling medical hashish program. She raised over $2 million, launched the operation, and helped the HBCU turn out to be the primary within the U.S. to develop and manufacture authorized medical hashish.
In 2020, she was topped Queen Zulu throughout Mardi Gras, becoming a member of the ranks of cultural icons like Louis Armstrong. Initially met with resistance because of her hashish ties, Macias selected to not disguise her identification. “The group at first actively tried to take away me,” she says. “However the males of Zulu stood up for me. They stated, ‘That is our Queen.'”
Her management prolonged into Ladies Develop, the place she rose to CEO. Underneath her course, the group turned a nationwide pressure for training, mentorship and entrepreneurship.
In 2024, Macias co-created Hope, a product line tailor-made for kids with autism, in partnership with advocate Erica Daniels. Hope generated over $1 million in its first yr, providing aid to households in search of various remedies.
Ladies Develop’s 2025 Management Summit was set to mark one other milestone, with WNBA star Brittney Griner scheduled to ship a keynote. However on Feb. 17, Griner abruptly left the occasion after discovering a disturbing message in her lodge room. Ladies Develop known as it “an assault” and vowed to proceed its work.
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“Attacking girls for coming collectively to steer and create change is not going to cease us,” Macias stated on the time. “We is not going to be silenced.”
At present, Macias continues to mentor operators, push for equitable laws and warn in regards to the dangers of company consolidation. “Taxation will kill your corporation,” she notes. Rescheduling to Schedule III would possibly convey advantages however may additionally permit Massive Pharma to dominate.
For Macias, the mission is deeply private. Her kids grew up with hashish as medication. One son, dwelling with Crohn’s illness, makes use of it for aid. One other now works alongside her.
“No means hold making an attempt,” she says. “If I am not on the market sharing this message, they may not have a second probability at life.”
Disclosure: This text was initially revealed on Forbes and seems right here with permission. It doesn’t symbolize Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content material or accuracy.
Photograph courtesy of Ladies Develop
