ABOUT THE FILM
This year, 55 million Americans will spend about 55 billion dollars on the medicine in marijuana. In 31 states and the District of Columbia, they will use it for a myriad of medical conditions. They will depend on so-called bud-tenders to give them anecdotal advice about the frequency and dosage of cannabis, a plant with over 400 different chemical molecules, and still classified as a schedule 1 drug, having no medical use and a high potential for abuse.
It’s a cannabis conundrum---a messy mix of medicine, policy and politics, and, in the interest of the public’s health, the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was tasked with looking at the science--- the evidence for the use of marijuana as medicine. The NAS’s 2017 report is the best information we have about what we know, and what we don’t.
“The Medicine in Marijuana” takes it from there. Chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, and epilepsy are the most common conditions for which people use medical marijuana, and we tell their stories, and those of the practitioners and researchers involved in their care: an infant with unremitting seizures; a man with an inoperable cancer; a woman with chronic pain; a veteran of 5 tours of duty with PTSD.
Across centuries and cultures, people have told stories about the healing powers of cannabis, but the plural of anecdote is not evidence. Now, the science is catching up with the stories, and The Medicine in Marijuana tells it like it is.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Ben Daitz is a physician, filmmaker, and writer. Ben’s films have been screened and honored by PBS, American Public Television, and numerous festivals. A Recent documentary, “The Sun Never Sets”, about the Rio Grande Sun, one of the best small-town newspapers in the country, was screened at The Newseum. Ben’s novel, “Delivery”, was named to the Best of the Southwest. He has been a contributing writer for the New York Times, The Atlantic, Undark, and Eclectica.
Ned Judge is a veteran writer; producer and director. Ned's work for NBC, PBS. Discovery, National Geographic and Turner Broadcasting, among others, has won numerous accolades, including two Emmys and a prestigious Columbia duPont Award. He has made many documentaries including for "Understanding," a Learning Channel science series. Topics included evolution, skyscrapers, time and future-warfare. Ned most recently produced and directed for PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
The Tijeras Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt educational film company. We’ve made many award winning films for public television, educational institutions and organizations.
Ned Judge and Ben Daitz at work on The Medicine in Marijuana