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Breaking The Grass Ceiling: Women Grow Summit Takes On Pot Industry

By Joel Hillan

DENVER (CBS4)- A special leadership summit is underway at the Westin in Denver, networking, teaching and encouraging women entrepreneurs in the pot industry.

"The cannabis space is so new this is an opportunity for anyone to come in and make their mark," said Kristina Garcia.

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She is the CEO of Women Grow and when she says anyone, she means it.

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Kristina Garcia, CEO of Women Grow (credit: CBS)

"We are humble farm women getting the medicine to the most amount of people," said Sister Kate, Founder of Sisters of the Valley.

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These women aren't Catholic, or any religion for that matter, but wear habits and call themselves nuns.

"The definition of a nun is they are women who live together, pray together, work together and take vow, and we live together, pray together, work together and take vows," she said.

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RELATED STORIES: Marijuana Legalization Story Archive

The sisters say their allegiance is to Mother Earth and to each other. They equate treatment of the Earth to treatment of women. They grow cannabis and turn it into salves and teas and ship the products around the world. Their "Balm of Gilead."

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"The most exciting thing is the variety of uses and therefore the many people it's actually helping," said Sister Claire, CFO of Sisters of the Valley.

They have a documentary coming out this year called Breaking Habits.

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Hope Wiseman (credit: CBS)

Also attending, Hope Wiseman of Maryland. At 25, she's the youngest African-American dispensary owner in the nation. Her business partner is her mom.

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"I went to her with a business plan, I had already thought of everything she could ask me so by the time I came to her with this plan, she saw the benefits of it, medically and economically and she thought it would be a great idea for us," she said.

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One of the featured speakers Friday will be Willie Nelson's wife, Annie D'Angelo. She will be introducing a new product under their label Willie's Reserve.

Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.

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