In Weed the People, filmmakers Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake take an unflinching look at the underground world of herbal medicine, where patients become experts on their own conditions and spend thousands of dollars on federally illegal medicines that are concocted in suburban kitchens. Nowhere is this phenomenon more compelling than in the treatment of children, who are ignorant of the stigma of medicinal marijuana and whose parents will stop at nothing to help them. Weed the People looks beyond pot-activist propaganda and politics to reveal the legitimate science behind cannabis medicine and the compelling stories of ordinary people whose lives are inescapably caught up in the controversy.
Watch the trailer below.
Rory Spowers: Can you tell us a bit about how you and Ricki first came together on this project and how Mangu TV became involved?
Abby Epstein: About two years ago, Ricki became really intrigued by medical marijuana when her husband was researching alternative treatments to help his grandfather fight cancer. She was surprised to see that the plant was healing a lot of people close to her and wanted to explore this on film. We began documenting people’s success stories with medical cannabis and attending conferences to interview experts. Ultimately, we decided to focus on children fighting cancer with cannabis as we felt these stories were quite miraculous and using children as subjects would avoid a lot of the stigma around this plant. After working on our own for about 18 months, we were introduced to Mangu TV who were very excited about the project and came on board to help us produce this feature documentary now titled “Weed the People.”
Given what you now know about medical marijuana, how would you most ideally see these treatments introduced and regulated?
There clearly needs to be more clinical trials, which won’t happen easily with marijuana’s absurd classification as a Schedule 1 drug with no medicinal benefits. But I think the key word is regulation, as currently it is very hard for patients to get access to the medicine, information on dosing or the purity and quality of the cannabis oils and extracts.
What do you think we will actually see evolving in terms of federal government legislation, patents etc?
It seems that the federal government won’t be able to hold its current position on marijuana too much longer. The states are moving ahead with medical legalization and the movement for medical access is strong and well supported among the American public. It appears that the Federal government is pulling back their efforts to criminalize legal MMJ operations.
To what extent do you think the medical benefits are restricted to CBD and not THC?
There is a lot of misinformation out there about which compound gives which specific medical benefit, but it’s clear that the whole plant works together in an “entourage effect” to act on the body’s receptors. Because of the prohibition, cannabis science in this country has been hampered so there needs to be far more trial and research to understand how the different ratios of the CBD and THC in each strain affect different medical conditions.
Do you think the beneficial effects of CBD may be affected by extracting and isolating it from it’s biological context?
I think that passing these “CBD Laws” which would make only CBD legal is not very helpful to most patients, especially cancer patients. Much of the science is showing that even a minimal trace of THC is important for whole plant medicine to be effective. There seems to be uses for pure CBD, but again, the science is just not there yet because of prohibition.
How do researchers think that cannabis oil can determine healthy or unhealthy cells, in contrast to chemotherapy?
There are great videos on the web that can demonstrate how the feedback mechanism works between the cannabinoids and the cell receptors. Unfortunately, I am not a scientist so do not have the terminology or expertise to explain that simply!
Is there any evidence of anti-cancer benefits from smoking marijuana?
Yes, there are. There was a well-known study that actually showed smoking marijuana offers some protection from lung cancer!
When do you hope to have film finished and how will it be distributed?
We hope to have the film finished in the spring of 2015 and then will start looking for worldwide distribution.
How can people best support the project, both now and in the longer term?
The best way to support us now is to back our IndieGoGo campaign which ends on June 29th! By supporting us here, you can make sure that the film actually gets made. http://bit.ly/WTPDonate
Why do you believe that this plant has been so demonised and repressed by our culture for the last 70 years, when used to extensively as a traditional medicine for millennia?
There are some great books written about the history of marijuana prohibition. For sure, there were some economic and political forces at play. America is essentially quite euphoria-phobic, which also doesn’t help matters! But I think it’s very shocking when you step back and see that a government can make possession of a medicinal plant illegal. This also doesn’t bode well for the future of integrative and plant-based cures.