Social media personality and cannabis advocate Miss Mary Jane has been awarded the Seedlings Innovation Prize at an event in Sydney last weekend.
MORE: Australia in “green rush” as cannabis stocks perform on ASX
To celebrate the new cannabis legalisation laws in Australia, the University of Sydney and Buddingtech hosted the first Australian medical cannabis technology and innovation event, Seedlings. Patients, entrepreneurs, respected doctors, and researchers gathered to explore solutions to the problems of supply, research, education, and access of medical cannabis.
The cannabis industry is currently expected to be worth upwards of $150 million in Australia, and is easily the fastest growing industry in the world. The new laws, allowing domestic cultivation of cannabis via a strict licensing scheme, took effect on October 31.
Seedlings
Taking the lead in this blooming cannabis startup space is Miss Mary Jane, whose win included $1,000 prize money, placement into the BuddingTech 2017 Ideas Incubation Program, and a private mentoring session with the CEO of one of Australia’s first ASX listed “pot stocks”.
Miss Mary Jane – real name is Charlie – is a social media personality advocating for cannabis education and law reform. Her hope is to inform and entertain a large online audience with accurate and sharable content – namely concise info videos about a wide range of cannabis related topics without the typical “stoner” stereotypes. Her first video (see below) was a mini-viral sensation reaching over 65,000 people within 24 hours, and was shared over 1,000 times on Facebook.
“I’m super excited to get so much initial support from everyone” said Miss Mary Jane. “I was a little hesitant that nobody would notice us, but the response so far has been fantastic! It’s an encouraging sign that hopefully Australia is ready to really start breaking down the negative stigma that still surrounds cannabis”.
Miss Mary Jane is a ‘joint’ (geddit?) project of two Sydney cannabis activists, husband and wife team Ben and Charlie. The project aims to champion women entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry. In contrast to existing industries that are predominantly led by men, the emerging cannabis industry offers huge leadership potential for women to pioneer the developing legal cannabis space.
