Ziva Cooper

And in 1970, cannabis was deemed a Schedule I drug.

which is the highest level of restriction in this country.

And it was seen as having no medicinal benefits and a high likelihood of addiction.

So it is in the same class currently, Schedule 1, as heroin, molly, and quaaludes.

But in 1996, California enacted the Compassionate Use Act, and it allowed seriously ill patients to possess, grow, and use medical marijuana, if given the blessing of their doctor.

And...

I know legally, according to the federal government here, it's still called marijuana, even though it seems like such a formal name and also antiquated and also rooted in racism.

Pot seems like your grandma trying to have a serious talk with you.

Weed also feels a little bit like, hello, hello, fellow kids.

These days, I guess people call cannabis trees or they say that they garden.

I mean, also a lot of humans just communicate by emojis and

in code to circumvent social media censorship.

So the leaf emoji it is.

But let's take a quick trip back to Massachusetts to chat with an anthropologist who literally studies the legalities and the social stigmas of cannabis for both medicinal and recreational use.

And her name is Dr. Caroline Mellie.

And after her son was diagnosed as an infant with a rare neurological disease and severe epilepsy and other treatments failed, her family turned to cannabinoids for therapy.

And I met up with her on the Smith College campus, where she's a professor in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Do your friends call you Dr. Weed or no?

And so how, okay, your friends and their astonishment.

I want to talk about your backstory because it's so fascinating.