The Grass Ceiling Is Breaking: What CNN’s New Weed Special Gets Right About Women and Cannabis

When Dr. Sanjay Gupta first aired his documentary series Weed on CNN back in 2013, he helped shift a nation’s conversation. Thirteen years and eight installments later, his latest special — Weed 8: Women and Weed, premiering April 19 at 8pm ET/PT — turns the lens on what may be the most significant demographic shift in cannabis history: women have not only joined the cannabis mainstream, they are now driving it.

What CNN’s Weed 8 Covers

Gupta travels to Oklahoma, where the legalization of medical marijuana in 2018 sparked a modern “green rush,” and where women are now at the center of that story as entrepreneurs, advocates, and consumers. He embeds with communities of “Cannamoms” — women who gather socially to use cannabis, share experiences, and host wellness-focused educational events. He attends the annual Cowboy Cup, a major Oklahoma cannabis culture celebration. And he sits down with researchers studying one of the most sensitive questions in this space: cannabis use during pregnancy and its potential effects on fetal brain development.

The hour is part of Gupta’s broader duPont-Columbia Award-winning series, and it arrives at a moment when the data and the culture are finally aligning.

The Numbers Tell a New Story

For decades, the cannabis consumer was imagined as young, male, and recreational. That image no longer holds.

1 in 3

women over 21 in the United States now consume cannabis, according to recent market research.

>50%

of cannabis users are now women — surpassing men for the first time in recorded consumer data (Headset).

39%

of cannabis industry executives are women, reflecting a sector where gender parity is closer than almost any other in consumer goods.

Women are also consuming differently than their male counterparts. Data from market research firm Headset shows that 29% of female cannabis consumers prefer non-flower formats — edibles, topicals, tinctures, and beverages — reflecting a wellness-oriented approach to the plant rather than a purely recreational one.

“Women now make up the fastest-growing segment of cannabis users in the United States, and for the first time, they are outpacing men.” — CNN, Weed 8

Why Women Are Turning to Cannabis

The reasons women give for cannabis use reveal a largely medicalized relationship with the plant. Survey data consistently shows:

Anxiety reduction (cited by approximately 70% of female consumers)
Sleep improvement and insomnia relief
Pain management, including menstrual pain and chronic conditions
Nausea relief, particularly in the context of chemotherapy or pregnancy-related symptoms
Stress and mood management, particularly post-pandemic

This wellness-first orientation helps explain the explosion of female-founded cannabis brands focused on precise dosing, educational labeling, and product formats that feel at home in a medicine cabinet rather than a smoke shop.

Breaking the “Grass Ceiling”: Women as Industry Leaders

The Weed 8 special also highlights something the industry itself has been slow to publicize: women are not just consumers in this space — they are building it. Cannabis has emerged as one of the few industries where women hold significant executive and ownership roles from the very beginning, in part because the industry was new enough that established power structures hadn’t fully calcified.

Pioneers like Wanda James — who became the first Black woman to own a licensed cannabis dispensary in the United States — and Hope Wiseman, who opened her dispensary at age 25, have paved a path that many are now following. New York’s Etain is a fully women-owned multi-location cannabis business. NORML reports that women-led organizations are among the most active in shaping cannabis policy and equity reform.

The phrase “grass ceiling” is no longer rhetorical. Women hold approximately 39% of executive positions in cannabis — a figure that towers over almost every other major industry.

The Harder Conversation: Cannabis and Pregnancy

Gupta’s special doesn’t shy away from complexity. One of its most important segments examines cannabis use during pregnancy — a topic where the science carries serious weight and where the gap between public perception and research findings is dangerously wide.

A 2021 federal survey found that approximately 7.2% of pregnant women reported using cannabis — a number that has likely grown since then as legalization has expanded. The reasons given are understandable: nausea (which affects up to 80% of pregnancies), anxiety, sleep disruption, and pain. But the research on fetal outcomes is not reassuring:

A meta-analysis published in 2025 found cannabis use during pregnancy was associated with a 52% higher risk of preterm delivery and a 75% higher risk of low birth weight.
THC crosses the placental barrier and has been detected in breast milk, with emerging evidence of impacts on fetal neurodevelopment.
In September 2025, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) reinforced its guidance: there is no established safe level of cannabis use during pregnancy or lactation.

This is not a reason to stigmatize women who are seeking relief from real symptoms. It is a reason to ensure those women have access to honest, science-based information — exactly the kind of conversation Gupta is helping to start.

The Bigger Picture: A $47 Billion Market Getting More Female

The US cannabis industry is projected to reach nearly $47 billion in 2026, part of a global market expected to grow from $72.8 billion today to $125.8 billion by 2030. Women are central to that growth story — not just as consumers, but as investors, founders, regulators, and advocates.

The product trends women are driving — wellness formulations, precise micro-dosing, non-intoxicating CBD and CBG products, and infused beverages — are already reshaping what the cannabis market looks like. The global market for cannabis beverages alone is projected to grow from $1.68 billion in 2025 to $8.08 billion by 2035.

What to Watch

Weed 8: Women and Weed airs Sunday, April 19 at 8pm ET/PT on CNN, with streaming available the following day for CNN subscribers. It represents the latest signal that the conversation around cannabis is growing up — becoming more nuanced, more evidence-based, and more representative of who is actually using it.

For the readers of The Cannigma, who have always known that cannabis is a serious health topic deserving serious coverage, this moment feels less like a discovery and more like a confirmation. The women were here all along.

Sources: CNN Press Room (April 13, 2026); Headset Consumer Data; ACOG Recommendations on Cannabis in Pregnancy (September 2025); NORML Women’s Alliance (March 2025); Budvue Women in Cannabis 2025; MarketsandMarkets Global Cannabis Market Forecast 2025–2030.

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