Mary Janes: The Women of Weed has always been a celebration of women and cannabis. Originally a cannabis outsider, I became intrigued by the cannabis industry when I learned women represent 37% of senior leadership in cannabis. The national average is 21%, so there was something about cannabis which attracted more female entrepreneurs.
I set out to answer this question by interviewing over 40 womxn across the United States. Many of them were mothers and I soon discovered cannabis liberation intersects with the most urgent social justice issues of our time: protecting Mother Earth, ending the War on Drugs, and dismantling the domination of Big Pharma. Listening to these women, I began to shake off the propaganda that “marijuana is a gateway drug” and unlearn the negative stereotypes I absorbed during the “Just Say No” era. By looking at the intersection of gender parity, social justice, and environmental sustainability, I learned how cannabis is not only an industry, but also a movement of dedicated and visionary womxn I affectionately call “Puffragettes®” (as in Pot + Suffragette).
And yet, mothers have not always publicly embraced cannabis. Until recently, women have been more likely to vote against marijuana legalization. However, once they saw how the War on Drugs harmed communities, wasted resources, and ruined lives, they began to support legalization. While it is becoming more socially acceptable for women to admit using cannabis, in many states women can lose their home, their job, and their children because laws have not evolved as quickly as society.
Brave women like Grammy-award-winning singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge, cannabis activist Leah Maurer, and attorney Shaleen Title are breaking this stigma by speaking out about cannabis, motherhood, and drug policy reform.
Mary Janes: The Women of Weed serves as a curated collection of the visionary women who birthed the cannabis movement and nurtured the legal cannabis industry we see today. It is a celebration, a time capsule, and a roadmap for where we still need to go. The film is currently available on AppleTV, GooglePlay, Vimeo, and Vudu.
This Mother’s Day we honor all mothers—biological mothers, adoptive parents, dog moms, and plant moms. Women have stepped up in untold ways over the past year. From working on the frontlines of the pandemic and the movements for racial justice, to caring for their families while working from home, all womxn deserve huge thanks for their perseverance.
Consequently, we want to offer “CannaMoms” something special this year. While we cannot give away cannabis, we can offer you a “Dime Bag”, which consists of a silver Puffragette pin (a collector’s item) and 10 temporary tattoos for you to share with your CannaMom friends.
To claim, simply visit our website and add a Dime Bag in your cart. Enter CANNAMOM at checkout and we will mail you the free gift.
Thank you to all the CannaMoms for everything you do! Happy Mother’s Day!
