A milestone birthday involving weed taught me the truth about today’s marijuana | CNN

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about the women-led “green rush” that’s happened since Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana. Watch him now on CNN. It was a milestone birthday (you know, one of those that ends with a zero), and I was reveling in Colorado’s stunning natural beauty during a weeklong visit. My husband booked dinner on my special day at a restaurant along the banks of the Roaring Fork River in Glenwood Springs, followed by live music in the garden of our historic hotel. What better evening to try something I hadn’t done in decades? My husband, Ben, and I had gone into a legal cannabis dispensary earlier in the day, an unimaginable option back when we were teenagers. In those days, you got your weed surreptitiously from friends of friends and did your best not to get caught. The stakes were high: Possession of even small amounts could be considered a felony, resulting in fines, probation or serious jail time. I didn’t smoke pot often in my youth and haven’t much since — weed just makes me sleepy. What’s the fun in that? So, when the budtender in the Colorado shop asked for my order, I was stumped. I gaped at the four large displays on the wa