Editor’s note: stream”Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports: “Cannabis 8: Women and Cannabis” CNN.
When I began filming the first Cannabis documentary in 2012, I could not have predicted where the journey would take me or the stories that would continue to unfold long after my initial exploration of the world of cannabis.
At the time, I thought I was making an independent film about a controversial plant and its place in modern medicine. What I didn’t realize was that I was also starting a long, ever-evolving conversation about hope, healing, and who should be taken seriously when talking about something as provocative as medical marijuana.
Over the past year, I’ve traveled across the country filming the eighth installment in a series that’s been running for more than a decade. The latest chapter focuses on women and cannabis—a natural progression that feels a little late.
Now Live: Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the trend of female marijuana use in the new documentary Marijuana 8: Women and Marijuana. Upgrade to view the full report.
I immediately learned that cannabis has become a lifeline for countless women who have been ignored by conventional medicine. They are grandmothers trying to mitigate the side effects of cancer treatment, athletes dealing with endometriosis, teachers coping with menopausal insomnia and mood swings. Everywhere I go, I hear different versions of the same story: “I tried everything else and nothing worked. Marijuana was the only thing that helped.”
We understand that this is unfortunately a common pattern rooted in a long history. For as long as medicine has existed, women’s health issues have been minimized, misdiagnosed, or ignored.
I witnessed this with my own mother as a young physician and again 20 years later with my wife. Conditions such as autoimmune disease, postpartum depression, and chronic pain syndromes are often blamed on stress or hysteria. Even now, women are still underrepresented in clinical trials, even though biological sex can greatly influence how a drug works and even whether it is effective. This exclusion leaves a major gap in our understanding of how best to treat half of the population, and women undoubtedly suffer as a result.
The situation is especially problematic when it comes to menopause. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) once held promise for relieving symptoms, but warnings and controversy about potential risks have many women worried. Faced with few good options, it’s no wonder so many people turn to marijuana. You can see it clearly from the data: Women now outpace men in cannabis use, especially among middle-aged and older adults.
In the stories I’ve collected over the past year, I’ve heard something profound: a silent rebellion against being ignored.
One of the most surprising places I find this revolution is in Oklahoma. The state that once had some of the toughest drug laws in the country is now affectionately known as “Toklahoma.” Since medical marijuana was legalized in the United States, an entire industry has sprung up seemingly overnight—scrappy, local, female-focused, and driven by a can-do spirit that can only happen in America’s heartland.
April Ayers (right) advises Brenda Tsukas on which cannabis products would be best for the pain relief Tsukas is seeking. Ayers owns the Cowboy Kush dispensary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and said her main customers are women between the ages of 45 and 60. – CNN
I met some unlikely women who built businesses with equal parts courage and compassion. April, a Tulsa mother, switched from selling houses to distributing cannabis edibles to help women with chronic pain. Bonnie is a young businesswoman in Tulsa who grows strains that help women with everything from sexual dysfunction to insomnia. Ebony was then a trained chef, moved to Oklahoma to make edibles, and is now a community doula and cannabis educator at the heart of the Cannamoms user community.
What impressed me most was how driven the mission was by these women. For them, marijuana isn’t about escapism; It’s about taking back agency.
These women are rewriting the narrative about cannabis—rooted in the scientific data they are slowly beginning to collect. They create products specifically for women, guided by empathy and experimentation, not shame or shame. This is a movement that was born not in labs or boardrooms, but in kitchens, home gardens and local pharmacies.
The larger conversation about medical marijuana also continues to change at a record pace. This year alone, several leading medical organizations have called for a re-evaluation of cannabis’ classification as a Schedule 1 drug, arguing that the evidence for its medical use can no longer be ignored. Research into cannabinoids to treat neurological conditions, chronic pain, and even autoimmune diseases is promising. Women are leading the way here, too. Dr. Staci Gruber is a pioneer in cannabis research at the Massachusetts Institute for Neuroscience Discovery Cannabis Research (MIND), where she focuses her attention on the treatment of endometriosis and menopause-related symptoms. Dr. Hilary Marusak, a developmental neuroscientist at Wayne State University in Detroit, is at the forefront of how marijuana affects the brain at all stages of life.
But I found that for every scientific breakthrough, there was still a frustrating lag in policy—and that gap had a huge human cost.
That all changed more than a decade ago when CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta met Charlotte Figi and heard her story. – CNN
To that end, I can’t talk about this topic without mentioning Charlotte Figi and her mother, Paige. Charlotte’s story changed everything for me. She was just a little girl with a rare form of epilepsy (Dravet syndrome) who went from hundreds of violent seizures a week to almost no seizures thanks to high-CBD hemp extract. Telling her story in my first “cannabis” documentary opened the world’s eyes to the true medical potential of cannabis and made the abstract heartbreakingly personal. Charlotte’s life and her death in 2020 continue to guide my thinking about this plant and its power.
When we spoke to Paige again recently, she told me that she still hears from families whose journeys began because of Charlotte: mothers desperate to help their children, and women desperate to help themselves. Her grace and determination remain the backbone of my thinking on this topic, reminding me that behind every “case study” is a family struggling to survive and a woman who refuses to be told she has no choice.
This spirit is what drives Weed 8. This is not a story about drugs; This is a story about dignity.
It’s about women learning to trust their own experiences, even when the medical system doesn’t. This is a community about where science, storytelling, and compassion collide. I’ve seen women in Oklahoma farm fields and urban greenhouses talk about marijuana with as much seriousness as they do about any other treatment plan. They study and teach all about terpene and cannabinoid ratios; they share lab results; and they hold each other accountable.
This is “grassroots” medicine in the true sense of the word.
Ebony Jones hosts a bonfire in her backyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jones calls herself a “cannabis entrepreneur” and hosts educational cannabis events for women in the community. – CNN
What makes this moment so extraordinary is that we are witnessing two revolutions intertwined: a social revolution and a biological revolution. The first is the broader destigmatization of marijuana, with state after state repealing old laws and outdated myths. The second is a more intimate kind, happening in living rooms and small businesses across the country. It’s the realization that healing doesn’t require waiting for permission.
Marijuana is not a panacea for all ailments. I want to clarify this. But for many women, it’s a start. It’s a way to soothe what’s hurt, to rest, to reconnect with body and mind. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a conversation that begins on their own terms.
As we present Weeds 8 to you, I find myself thinking back to Charlotte, the spark that ignited this entire journey. Her story reminds me that change often begins with a brave person willing to challenge the status quo.
The women I’ve met in the last year have all moved on with that same spark. Together they cultivate something greater than any single crop or product. They are building a movement rooted in the belief that women’s pain matters, women’s research matters, and that sometimes the path to progress begins in the most unexpected soil.
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