Can marijuana help treat cancer? The team behind Weed The People thinks so

The U.S. government currently classifies marijuana as a “Schedule 1" drug, or a “drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” which makes researching cannabis medicine in the U.S. incredibly difficult. (For reference, other “Schedule 1" drugs include heroin, LSD, and ecstasy, while cocaine, OxyContin, Vicodin, and meth are considered “Schedule 2" drugs, a step below “Schedule 1) As a result, patients may have trouble getting information from their doctors about medical marijuana, even in states where it’s legal, instead turning to “underground” sources.

This “underground world” of cannabis medicine is at the heart of the new documentary Weed The People. Directed by Abby Epstein, and produced by Ricki Lake and Sol Tryon, Weed The People follows desperate parents whose children suffer from childhood cancers as they wade into the uncharted waters of cannabis medicine. What they found are promising cases where kids treated with cannabis oil show marked improvement. After the premiere, we spoke with Epstein, Lake, and Tryon about the film, and the stigma behind marijuana.