Science has been key in Mara Gordon’s journey as a cannabis advocate and entrepreneur.
As someone who found relief from chronic pain through cannabis, Gordon’s background as a process engineer has provided the perfect skillset to scientifically address the inconsistencies she was experiencing with cannabis dosing.
“I wanted doseable medicine just like my other medicine,” she recalls. With no proper requirements at the time to get products with clear, consistent amounts, Gordon decided to take matters into her own hands.
She began collecting data, looking for patterns, processes, and repeatability. Through this research, Gordon and her husband Stewart Smith founded Aunt Zelda’s as a provider of cannabis-infused olive oils, extracts, and topicals.
As a way to obtain the information she needed for her research, Gordon developed an arrangement: her medicine in return for data and feedback. Since then, she has helped develop cannabis treatment protocols for chronically ill patients.
Her drive to aid them was showcased in the 2018 documentary “Weed the People,” which follows several families as they struggle to treat their cancer-stricken children and desperately look to cannabis for relief.
Mara Gordon
Advocate & Entrepreneur
Aunt Zelda’s
In the film, Gordon consults with three families and helps them with recommendations for dosages she believes will help the patients. With many of the children taking multiple narcotics, some as strong as methadone and OxyContin, she was determined to improve their quality of life.
By providing the parents with her oil and assisting them with adjusting the dosing throughout treatments, Gordon was able to help wean some of the children off of the dangerous drugs.
Gordon’s journey to advocate for doseable cannabis continues in her belief that physicians should be at the forefront of providing information, where it can be as accessible as any other medicine.
“It really shouldn’t be on the backs of patients to have to figure out what to use and how to use it,” she explains, attributing this sentiment back to her own experience of trying to figure out what she needed as a patient.
Gordon has shifted her passion to an ongoing innovative project: building a software platform.
She has developed an effective system for physicians to use scientific data and make recommendations of medical cannabis to their patients like they do with any other type of medication. Having this information available to the masses is instrumental in providing them with consistent cannabis dosing.
Despite many women being pushed out of the cannabis industry due to male-dominated financial businesses, those like Gordon continue to make it possible for people to have good cannabis medicine. She believes women can “utilize what they’re already passionate about and bring it to the cannabis space.”
Gordon’s advice?
“Anybody who has a passion for being of service and helping other people, look to cannabis as an opportunity to do tremendous good. Stay focused – once you figure out what you want to do, do it, and be excellent at it.”
