00:00Our current reality is pretty bleak, so it's not surprising that we're all
00:05coping with a small glass of wine. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my wine, but
00:10have you noticed that wine is literally everywhere lately? It's all over pop
00:16culture. Does anybody know how to open wine in a box? How do you open wine in a box?
00:20It's an emergency, we don't have a wine opener.
00:24And it's all over social media.
00:31Women drank 57% of all of the wine in the U.S. in 2015. We're drinking so much wine
00:39that
00:39we're actually changing how it's being bought and sold. Oh, hey Lauren!
00:46Women are drinking a ton of wine, but we're also doing something else. Weed.
00:58Hi! Hi! This is Erica. She's a mom who preferred weed over
01:02wine. And she gets a lot of shit for it.
01:04We have three kids. It is very tough. It's a lot of work taking care of three kids. After
01:09the kids are in bed, I come downstairs with my husband and we smoke. We smoke weed.
01:14Why did you want your face blurred for this interview?
01:16I am a little nervous that, again, I would be judged. My children would be judged. My husband
01:21works for a big company. I don't want anything to jeopardize our lifestyle.
01:26I don't know if I would say I'd get shit because no one knows. I just don't tell them.
01:30And it's just not talked about. The other day I was at school pickup. A mom was wearing a shirt
01:35that
01:35says, espresso then prosecco, which I thought was pretty cute. But there's no way that I can wear a
01:42shirt that says, coffee and then weed. Or, you know, I'm going to smoke a joint and then play with
01:47my
01:47kids. Like, that would never be acceptable. Right. I would never, ever do that. How does that make you
01:52feel when you see that stuff? I just, I'm like, okay, that's your medication. And this is my medication.
02:00Does smoking weed help you be a better parent and a better mom? I definitely think that I have more
02:06patience. I definitely think that I have less anxiety. Instead of yelling, clean up your toys,
02:11clean up your eyes. Let's put on music. Let's have a dance party. And it works so much better.
02:15So really the secret to being a parent is getting stoned. Well, for me that works. People who smoke are
02:23just like everyone else, trying to relax at the end of the day. So whether you do that with a
02:28glass of
02:29wine or a whiskey or taking a bath or taking a walk, whatever somebody does, everyone has some
02:35kind of coping mechanism. And I think just a lot of people, more moms especially, out there are
02:40smoking weed because there's no side effects. At the end of the day, I think I'm a really good mom.
02:44And I just hate the fact that smoking weed might, other people might think that I'm not a good mom
02:52because that's the most important thing to me in the whole world.
02:56So how did pot get such a stigma? And who's the one doing the stigmatizing?
03:02I spend all my time researching drugs like Mali. And here you are asking me about weed. How boring.
03:07This is Dr. Joseph Palomar. His research at NYU investigates the stigma associated with
03:13recreational drug use. A major factor women deal with with regards to marijuana use is stigma. But
03:19women are more likely to stigmatize users. So women have to deal with the stigma from other women.
03:26If you're a woman who wants to smoke weed, your main obstacle is other women who disapprove of what
03:33you're doing. A lot of people stigmatize marijuana use, particularly older generations. If you were
03:40a kid in the 1980s, you were probably taught just say no to all drugs, including weed. In fact,
03:45you were probably taught to straight out ostracize marijuana users. We're lacking a drug education
03:50here in the U.S. Anti-marijuana propaganda image from the 1930s and 40s. Pretty much everyone depicts
03:57a woman that's looking for sex or is vulnerable to sex.
04:02All that energy, beautiful. Let's not waste it dancing.
04:07Yeah, so how do women combat that? If you're a weed user and you're a millennial,
04:12you have a better chance of changing the attitudes of your friends that are your age. It's very
04:17unlikely that you're going to be able to change the attitudes of your parents or people much older
04:22than you. The stigma is pretty deeply ingrained and not very likely going to change. I'm just calling
04:28because I was curious if you were still, you know, like selling the greenery because I'm looking to buy
04:36some greenery. You still smoke pot? Oh, Abby. This is a prank call. Bye. So sad.
04:50I know mommy knows. You can't have the conversation around cannabis without talking about race,
04:58without talking about gender, without talking about society and who's in power. This is Aliza Sherman.
05:04She's the CEO of Elementa, a small startup helping women connect to remove the stigma around marijuana use.
05:11You cannot ignore the fact that people of color get the brunt of the criminalization of marijuana.
05:19When you look at who's in prison right now, it is people of color, it's Hispanic men and women,
05:25it's black men and women in prison for possessing what ultimately is medicine.
05:30Women are often moms or caretakers and caregivers. So usually going to something like cannabis for
05:39relaxation or entertainment or even for wellness seems a little bit risky. I would love young women
05:46to think a lot about the history of cannabis and the fact that women throughout history have used
05:53cannabis as a healing plant because we tend to be the caregivers of our families, of our loved ones,
06:02friends, community, and we also need to take care of ourselves. So whether you prefer wine or weed isn't the
06:09point. We glorify some things in our culture while villainizing others. The reality is we're all just
06:16trying to cope with this crazy world with the best tools that we have. So you do you and let
06:24her do her.
06:26Grandmothers are smoking or taking edibles. Moms and dads and just anybody who wants to just relax a
06:32little bit. A calming way to end your day and just kind of be more enjoyable.
