Madison Hernandez Is Mapping the Future of Cannabis

The moment I met Madison Hernandez, I knew I was in the presence of a true cannabis leader.

Hernandez is that increasingly rare combination of artist, researcher, and community builder. She served as one of the principal authors of High Stakes, the UCLA Labor Center’s landmark report on California’s cannabis workforce and helped bring queer cannabis history to life through Coming Out Green, a multimedia installation celebrating LGBTQ+ cannabis leaders from across California, and her vivid and colorful psychedelic drawings have been exhibited with Art Share LA. Hernandez is also the founder of The Cannabis Club, a community gathering held every third Tuesday in Echo Park that explores the politics, pleasures, and possibilities of cannabis. She is currently studying data science and statistical analytics with a focus on cannabis. 

We decided to conduct our Cannabis & Tech Today interview at a cannabis lounge, a task that proved harder than it sounds, even in Los Angeles. The Artist Tree’s lounge reduced its hours. PleasureMed’s lounge had closed altogether. So we landed at The Woods in West Hollywood, a swanky cannabis lounge co-owned by Woody Harrelson that looks like it could double as a set for The White Lotus: koi ponds, tropical trees, intermittently talkative blue macaws, and elevated treehouse cabanas.

A generous budtender with salt-and-pepper locs and knowing eyes took our order. I chose a Moon Made Farms Nightlight joint; she opted for a Cannadescént Connect pre-roll. Jay-Z, Miguel, and Drake drifted through the speakers while a server, wearing maximalist pink furry slippers, delivered our herbal teas. 

For Hernandez, every dispensary, worker survey, city ordinance, and neighborhood map is another data point in a much larger question: Who gets to belong in cannabis?

C&T Today: You’ve worked at the intersection of sociology, statistical analysis, and cannabis for years. For readers who may not immediately see the connection, what can data reveal about the cannabis industry that anecdotes and intuition alone cannot?

Madison Hernandez: I actually love that they overlap. I like to say people already know something, and then the data just confirms it. That’s often the case with sociology, we experience these things first, and then we find ways to measure them. What data adds is the math behind our intuition. You’re able to put numbers to things like prices, THC levels, or whether cannabis is allowed in a particular city or county. I love qualitative research too, but there’s something powerful about making information measurable. A percentage or a chart helps people understand what they’ve already been feeling. I actually have a hard time verbalizing my own feelings sometimes, so being able to prove something through numbers is really satisfying. That’s why I love data science. It doesn’t replace lived experience, it helps us quantify it.

C&T Today: You were one of the researchers behind UCLA Labor Center’s High Stakes, the first comprehensive report on California’s cannabis workforce. What surprised you most?

MH: What surprised me wasn’t that queer people were represented in cannabis—it was just how represented they were. Around 12% of Californians identify as LGBTQ+, but our research found that more than 20% of cannabis workers did. That’s a beautiful overrepresentation. It also made me realize we’re often overlooking queer cannabis workers, brown workers, and women. We talk about “the cannabis industry” as though it’s one thing, but it’s made up of all these different communities whose experiences deserve attention. Another thing that stood out was timing. Most of the people we surveyed hadn’t been in cannabis for ten or fifteen years. Many had entered during the pandemic because cannabis was considered essential work. That really changed my understanding of who today’s cannabis worker is.

C&T Today: One of the most fascinating parts of the report was how you approached workers’ own stories. Rather than treating qualitative responses as an afterthought, you found a way to make them part of the data itself.

MH: That almost didn’t happen. We surveyed 1,111 cannabis workers and conducted 50 in-depth interviews. The final survey question simply asked, “What would you like the public to know about cannabis?” Nearly everyone answered. The challenge became: How do you analyze hundreds of completely different responses? I exported every answer into Excel, created word clouds, looked for recurring themes, and built categories around them. It was really about combining sociological interpretation with quantitative analysis. I wanted to preserve what people were saying while also identifying patterns. One thing became very clear. Yes, workers wanted better pay, but the second biggest concern was safety. They wanted benefits. They wanted job security. They wanted the credibility of working with a medical product. Those concerns are easy to overlook when the workforce itself is often overlooked.

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C&T Today: Throughout our conversation, you kept returning to the relationship between stories and statistics. It almost seems like you don’t see qualitative and quantitative research as competing approaches.

MH: Not at all. I love storytelling through data. One example from class involved research showing that men are much less likely than women to seek preventative healthcare. The data tells you that’s true. Then people immediately start asking, “Why?” Someone in class said, “Well, men don’t go to the doctor until something’s wrong.” That explanation wasn’t in the data, but the data inspired that conversation. That’s my favorite part. The numbers reveal a pattern, and then people begin thinking critically about what it means. Data doesn’t end the story. It starts one.

C&T Today: One of the things that fascinated me was your curiosity about geography. You noticed that Artesia, Malibu, and West Hollywood all have unique approaches to cannabis licensing, and your instinct wasn’t to judge them, it was to ask, “What’s going on over there?” Why is that question so interesting to you?

MH: I’m trying to focus on what good is happening. We already know workers can be underpaid or overworked. We’ve heard those stories. I don’t want to spend all my time documenting problems, I want to find the places that are getting something right. When I noticed those cities had similar licensing structures, I immediately wanted to know why. What makes them different? What can other communities learn from them? Maybe the answer has to do with geography. Maybe it’s the businesses around them. Maybe it’s policy. I don’t know yet, and that’s exciting. Data gives you clues, and then you follow them. I don’t believe we have to invent better systems from scratch. After all this time, someone, somewhere, is already doing it well. My job is to find them.

C&T Today: California is often held up as the model for legal cannabis, but you’ve suggested it’s also a cautionary tale. Looking back over the past decade, what do you think the industry still hasn’t learned?

MH: I think we’ve misunderstood where advocacy should be directed. Too often we see social equity businesses frustrated with unlicensed operators, when the real issue is the system itself. They’re paying enormous taxes and navigating regulations that were never designed to help them succeed. Instead of punching down, we should be pushing up, for tax reform and better policy. I’ve also watched social equity applicants become targets for predatory investors and loans. That history keeps repeating because we aren’t learning from it. For me, access is still the biggest issue. Cannabis should be available to adults in ways that are thoughtful, equitable, and community-centered. California has taught us a lot, but it has also shown us how easy it is to recreate barriers even after legalization.

C&T Today: You’re equal parts researcher, artist, and community builder. As your work evolves, what kinds of collaborations are you hoping to take on next?

MH: My recent micro-internship with Los Angeles Community College and Cal Poly Pomona showed me that paid training and workplace experience is what people and students crave. I hope to be a part of a community college paid cannabis workplace internship program or academy. I also want the Cannabis Club to have an impact on cannabis-specific policy. I would also love to collaborate with aligned women, queer, and BIPOC owned brands with data collection and interpretation.

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