Women to Watch: Jess Gonzalez

Attorney Jess Gonzalez is a co-founder of the Rudick Law Group, the president of the Latino Cannabis Alliance, owner of the consulting firm Veritas Quo and “most of all, I am an advocate for cannabis legalization and defending the plant in multiple ways,” she says.

By day, Gonzalez helps the Rudick Law Group’s clients get licensed, remain compliant or get ready for sale, in addition to managing the (woman owned and operated) firm’s IP portfolio, which includes all of its domestic and international cannabis, hemp and psychedelic trademarks. And in her off-time, Gonzalez leads the Latino Cannabis Alliance, which aims to ensure Latino voices are at the center of cannabis policy, education and opportunities.

“Because cannabis right now is used as one of the top three reasons for deportation and so if we want to stop these deportations, we have to remove some of the tools,” she says.

In 2022, Gonzalez told Marijuana Venture her next goal was to establish bilingual education so native Spanish speakers could take advantage of industry opportunities. That ambition was realized through Veritas Quo when it launched the New Jersey Cannabis Training Academy.

“We helped to build out was the most comprehensive technical assistance program in the country,” she says. “But what I’m most proud about is that it is the only technical assistance program in the country fully translated into Spanish.”

The academy has graduated more than 3,000 students and helped more than 70 businesses, so Gonzales is now setting her sights on her next major milestone: “My goal would be to touch as many legalization movements of South America as possible through helping them, consulting them, advising them, supporting them, or just being a soundboard for them,” she says. “We’ve already started that with a few countries already, but I really want to hit as many of them as possible.”