EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Weed 8: Women and Weed” at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, April 19, on NCS and streaming on the NCS app on April 20.
When I began filming the primary “Weed” documentary again in 2012, I couldn’t have predicted the place this journey would take me — or the tales that will maintain unfolding lengthy after that preliminary exploration into the world of cannabis.
At the time, I assumed I used to be making a single self-contained movie a few controversial plant and its place in fashionable drugs. What I didn’t notice was that I used to be additionally starting a protracted, evolving dialog about hope, therapeutic and who will get to be taken significantly when speaking about one thing as provocative as medical marijuana.
Over the previous yr, I’ve traveled throughout the nation filming the eighth installment on this decade-plus-long collection. This newest chapter focuses on women and weed — a pure development, and one which felt overdue.
What I instantly realized was that cannabis has grow to be a lifeline for numerous women who really feel unseen by typical drugs. They are grandmothers making an attempt to ease the unwanted effects of most cancers therapy, athletes managing endometriosis, lecturers navigating the sleeplessness and temper swings of menopause. Everywhere I went, I heard variations of the identical story: “I tried everything else, and nothing really worked. Cannabis was the only thing that helped.”
As we realized, that is sadly a well-known sample rooted in a protracted historical past. For so long as drugs has been practiced, women’s well being considerations have been minimized, misdiagnosed or dismissed.
As a younger physician, I noticed this with my very own mom, and then once more 20 years later with my spouse. Conditions like autoimmune illness, postpartum despair and persistent ache syndromes have been too typically chalked up to stress or hysteria. Even now, women stay underrepresented in medical trials, despite the fact that organic intercourse can dramatically have an effect on how drugs work or in the event that they even work in any respect. This exclusion has left main gaps in our understanding of how greatest to deal with half the inhabitants, and women have unquestionably suffered consequently.
When it comes to menopause, the state of affairs is especially problematic. Hormone substitute remedy (HRT) as soon as promised aid, however warnings and controversies about potential dangers left many women anxious. Faced with few good choices, it’s no surprise so many are turning to cannabis. In the information, you see it clearly: Women now outpace males when it comes to cannabis use, particularly amongst middle-age and older adults.
In the tales I gathered over the previous yr, I heard one thing profound: a quiet revolt in opposition to being ignored.
One of probably the most stunning locations I discovered this revolution unfolding was Oklahoma. The state that when had a few of the hardest drug legal guidelines within the nation is now, considerably affectionately, referred to as “Tokelahoma.” Since medical marijuana was legalized there, a whole business has sprung up seemingly in a single day — scrappy, native, women-focused and pushed by a can-do ethos that would solely occur in America’s heartland.
I met women who had grow to be unlikely entrepreneurs, constructing companies powered by equal elements grit and compassion. There was April, a mom in Tulsa who pivoted from promoting homes to shelling out cannabis-infused edibles that help women handle persistent ache. There was Bonnie, a younger businesswoman in Tulsa rising strains that would help women with the whole lot from sexual dysfunction to insomnia. And then Ebony, a educated chef who moved to Oklahoma to make edibles, is now a neighborhood doula and cannabis educator on the coronary heart of a neighborhood of customers referred to as cannamoms.
What struck me most was how mission-driven these women have been. For them, cannabis wasn’t about escaping actuality; it was about reclaiming company.
These women are rewriting the narrative round cannabis — rooted in scientific information, which they are slowly beginning to collect as effectively. They’re creating merchandise particularly for women, guided by empathy and experimentation slightly than stigma or disgrace. It’s a motion born not in laboratories or boardrooms however in kitchens, house gardens and native dispensaries.
The bigger dialog about medical marijuana additionally continues to shift at report pace. This yr alone, a number of main medical organizations have referred to as for a reevaluation of cannabis’ classification as a Schedule I drug, arguing that the proof for its medical use can not be ignored. There’s promising analysis into cannabinoids for neurological circumstances, persistent ache and even autoimmune ailments. Women are main the best way there, too. Dr. Staci Gruber, a pioneer in cannabis analysis on the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery, often called MIND, in Massachusetts, is placing a highlight on cannabis for endometriosis and signs associated to menopause. Dr. Hilary Marusak, a developmental neuroscientist at Wayne State University in Detroit, is on the forefront of how cannabis impacts the mind throughout each stage of life.
But for each scientific breakthrough, I’ve discovered there’s nonetheless a irritating lag in coverage — and a deeply human price to that hole.
To that finish, I can’t speak about this topic with out mentioning Charlotte Figi and her mom, Paige. Charlotte’s story modified the whole lot for me. She was just a bit lady with a uncommon type of epilepsy — Dravet syndrome — who went from having a whole bunch of violent seizures per week to virtually none, thanks to a high-CBD cannabis extract. Telling her story in my first “Weed” documentary opened the world’s eyes to the true medical potential of cannabis and made the summary heartbreakingly private. Charlotte’s life — and her dying in 2020 — continues to information my fascinated about this plant and its energy.
When we spoke with Paige once more lately, she informed me she nonetheless hears from households who started their very own journeys due to Charlotte: moms determined to help their children and women determined to help themselves. Her grace and dedication stay an anchor for my fascinated about this matter, a reminder that behind each “case study” is a household making an attempt to survive and a lady refusing to be told there are no choices left.
That spirit is what drives “Weed 8.” This isn’t a narrative about medication; it’s a narrative about dignity.
It’s about women who are studying to belief their very own experiences, even when the medical system doesn’t. It’s about communities the place science, storytelling and compassion collide. I’ve seen women in Oklahoma farm fields and city greenhouses who speak about cannabis with the identical seriousness they’d carry to some other therapy plan. They research and educate all about terpenes and cannabinoid ratios; they share lab outcomes; they maintain one another accountable.
It’s “grass-roots” drugs within the truest sense.
What makes this second so extraordinary is that we’re watching two revolutions intertwine: one social, one organic. The first is the broader destigmatization of cannabis, as state after state dismantles outdated legal guidelines and outdated myths. The second is a extra intimate one, occurring in dwelling rooms and small companies throughout the nation. It’s the belief that therapeutic doesn’t have to wait for permission.
Cannabis shouldn’t be a cure-all. I need to be clear about that. But for many women, it’s a begin. It’s a manner to soothe what’s damaged, to reclaim relaxation, to reconnect the physique and thoughts. And maybe most essential, it’s a dialog begun on their very own phrases.
As we current “Weed 8” to you, I discover myself pondering again to Charlotte, the spark who lit this whole journey. Her story jogs my memory that change typically begins with one courageous particular person keen to problem the established order.
The women I’ve met this previous yr carry that very same spark ahead. Together, they’re cultivating one thing bigger than any single crop or product. They’re rising a motion rooted in perception: that women’s ache issues, that women’s analysis issues and that typically, the trail to progress begins in probably the most surprising soil.