Weed the People

Exploring the medical use of cannabis in the treatment of children with cancer. A film By Ricki Lake & Abby Epstein.

7,3

Giancarlo's Recommendation

In 2010, while editing Neurons to Nirvana, Miki Willis introduced me to Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake, exceptional change makers duo that exposed the business of being born. They were fundraising for a documentary about the medicinal properties of cannabis. I always thought it was important to expose how Cannabis prohibition violates the basic human right to natural medicines. So Mangusta Productions invested and produced it.

A film about Weed? Not Quite. 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, 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.

Synopsis

"Inspirational. There will be tears of joy with the film's multiple success stories."

Film Journal International

"‘Weed The People’ will challenge everything you thought you knew about medical marijuana."

Bustle

"Ricki Lake’s ‘Weed The People’ proves once and for all that marijuana can save lives."

Romper

"I have always been wary of marijuana. Yet two years ago my husband’s search for alternative therapies to help his grandfather opened my eyes to the healing potential of this plant. I was outraged by the fact that our country is actually holding up clinical research because of outdated policies."

Ricki Lake