As the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar industry continues to draw attention, cannabis businesses are debating whether they should hire people with previous drug convictions in the industry.

Where some companies like Patriot Care, a leading Massachusetts dispensary, follow the federal drug laws, other state-legal cannabis companies are not operating legally under the state laws.

Patriot Care was against the elimination of the felony drug prohibition, that prevented anyone with a felony drug conviction from serving in any capacity with a registered cannabis dispensary.

“Permitting those who have demonstrated the interest and willingness to ignore state and federal drug laws sends the wrong signals to those who would participate in the legal, regulated industry,” CEO of Patriot Care Robert Mayerson wrote in a letter to the Massachusetts Public Health Council.

To legitimize the trade and help prevent out-of-state diversion, Cannabis laws in many states do not allow drug offenders with cannabis-related convictions from entering the industry, and the people that are more likely to be shut out are black and Latinos.

According to Ryan Ansin, who has been investing in the industry for three years, it is necessary to create a more equitable industry and change the current drug laws.

CEO of Terra Tech Derek Peterson, an integrated cannabis-focused agriculture company that operates in California and Nevada, said the company supports equity programs and wants to include criminal justice-reform language into legalization legislation in New Jersey.