By Jennifer Goldberg | Phoenix New Times
As Heather Cabot researched her 2017 book, Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech, she noticed something she found odd: Angel investors and venture capitalists she spoke to for the book were beginning to invest in cannabis startups.
“I was really surprised, and frankly, I was kind of floored, because these were people I regarded as rather straitlaced, and many of them had Wall Street credentials, and I didn’t understand why they would be investing in something federally illegal,” she says.
Cabot, a former ABC News correspondent and anchor who spent much of her childhood living in Phoenix, is back with her second book, The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream, which was published last month. It’s a lively account of the way cannabis — and the people who grow, sell, and use it — is leaving the shadows, and includes vignettes from Las Vegas marijuana business conventions; New Jersey mansions; the Mumbai, India, hotel room of Snoop Dogg’s manager; and even the Yavapai County courthouse in Prescott.
