Posted on 07/30/2014 10:40:11 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Doctors in Macon, Georgia, told Janea Cox that her daughter, Haleigh, might not live another three months.
That was the middle of March, when Haleigh's brain was being short-circuited by hundreds of seizures a day, overrunning the array of five potent drugs meant to control them. Worse, the drugs were damaging Haleigh's organs.
"She was maxed out," Cox said. "She'd quit breathing several times a day, and the doctors blamed it on the seizure medications."
Cox had heard that a form of medical marijuana might help, but it wasn't available in central Georgia. So a week after hearing the ominous diagnosis, she and Haleigh packed up and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Haleigh began a regimen of cannabis oil: four times a day and once at night.
By summer, she was down to just a handful of seizures a day. In less than three months, doctors were able to wean her off Depakote, a powerful medication that had been damaging her liver.
Haleigh had never been able to walk or talk. But freed from seizures in Colorado, "She said 'Mama' for the first time," Cox said. "She's playing with puzzles; she's walking. She's almost being a normal child."
Despite all the good news, Cox is living in limbo. Her husband, a paramedic, couldn't afford to leave his job and pension; he still lives and works in Forsyth, Georgia. The family is relying on charity to keep their Colorado apartment for the next few months; beyond that, the future is uncertain.
A bill being introduced Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives could be Cox's ticket home. The three-page bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act -- the federal law that criminalizes marijuana -- to exempt plants with an extremely low percentage of THC, the chemical that makes users high.
If passed, it would be the first time that federal law allows any medical marijuana use.
"No one should face a choice of having their child suffer or moving to Colorado and splitting up their family," said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, the bill's sponsor. "We live in America, and if there's something that would make my child better, and they can't get it because of the government, that's not right."
The bill will land in a Congress that may be open to change. Across the country, highly sympathetic patients and a nonintoxicating product have proved a popular mix. This year alone, 11 states have passed legislation loosening regulation of cannabis strains with high cannabidiol and/or minimal THC content.
In this atmosphere, Perry says that once members and their staffs are brought up to speed, he expects the bill to attract "overwhelming" support.
"It wouldn't be surprising if we see broad support for this proposal," agreed Mason Tvert, communications director at the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for marijuana and medical marijuana legalization. "If this bill gets support, it will demonstrate that there is recognition of marijuana's medical benefits."
Dubbed the Charlotte's Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014, the bill is named after Charlotte Figi, a young Colorado girl whose parents have campaigned nationwide for easier access to medical marijuana after successfully controlling their daughter's seizures with cannabis oil. Since her story became known, a growing number of parents have flocked to Colorado, hoping for similar success.
The Charlotte's Web cannabis strain, developed by the Realm of Caring nonprofit organization in Colorado Springs, is in high demand, in part because of the attention it's received in the media. Many families wait months for a batch to be grown and processed into cannabis oil. Perry's bill, however, would apply to any cannabis strain with a THC content of less than 0.3%.
Charlotte's Web and similar strains not only have minimal THC, they have high levels of cannabidiol, another chemical. A growing body of anecdotal evidence suggests that cannabidiol can effectively control seizures, though there are no published studies to support its use.
It's easy to find critics who say parents should follow a more traditional route.
"There is no evidence for marijuana as a treatment for seizures," Rep. John Fleming, R-Louisiana, a physician, claimed during a congressional hearing last month. "We hear anecdotal stories, and that's how myths come about."
Fleming and others point out that a pharmaceutical version of cannabidiol oil, called Epidiolex, is being tested in clinical trials. But many children aren't able to get into the trials. Haleigh Cox is disqualified because she has type-1 diabetes. Others aren't willing to wait several months to be enrolled.
"With Epidiolex, there just aren't enough seats at the table," said Mark Knecht, a father from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, whose story helped inspire Perry's bill.
His daughter Anna, 11, has epilepsy and suffers anywhere from a handful of seizures a day to more than 100, despite her four anti-convulsant medications. Knecht, the chief financial officer of a large Christian medical nonprofit, says Anna has been evaluated at several top hospitals but couldn't land a spot in the Epidiolex trial.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books allowing medical marijuana for a variety of conditions. But even as states rewrite their regulations, federal law remains the same: Marijuana is illegal to grow, sell or use for any purpose. Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed on Schedule 1, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." To backers of reform, the Catch-22 is familiar: Marijuana is restricted in large part because there is little research to support medical uses; research is difficult to conduct because of tight restrictions.
A series of memos from the Justice Department has said that arresting individual medical marijuana users is not a priority, and a 2013 memo added that federal prosecutors should not target large commercial operations except on a case-by-case basis. But most observers say that shipping or transporting the drug across state lines ups the ante.
"For families like us, the biggest issue is the federal issue. You can't take it across state lines," Knecht explained.
His family still lives in Mechanicsburg. But after seeing CNN's medical marijuana documentary last year, Anna and her mother, Deb, established residency in Colorado, where they obtained a medical marijuana card that let them place an order for a batch cannabis oil, in hopes it will control Anna's seizures. If Perry's bill becomes law, Knecht says, "Realm of Caring could just put it in a FedEx package."
Medical marijuana is a total scam and the reason I say you are a liar is because of your misrepresentation of it.
If you weren’t so stoned you may recall my comments earlier in the thread about potential uses of components in marijuana for medical purposes.
I think your consistent attempt to conflate the workings of the medical marijuana industry and the purpose of medical marijuana laws, which is to allow stoners to legally get their pot, with potential benefits of marijuana is at best disingenuous.
It’s not naivety on tour part, it’s deliberate misinformation you are trying to propagate.
I’m curious, you are not a Christian, are you?
Not sure what you're talking about. I've been honest and open and very sincere as well. Apparently, you have a much more in depth understanding of how the industry works in Cali, in Colorado AND in Washington, along with other states where "medicinal" has been legalized, that I don't have.
I've been open and honest with my experiences. To say that I'm "too stoned" is a horrible debate point, as I've previously mentioned that, as much as I support the industry, I also choose not to partake.
Why do you feel the need to overtly lie about this topic?
Again, I've not lied about anything, but instead have been quite forthcoming about information regarding medicinal laws here in Colorado, as well as my experiences.
makes you susceptible to liberal and leftist propaganda.
Again, it's not liberal or conservative. It's truth vs fiction, and the fiction is that, somehow, MJ is evil to begin with, which is a premise based entirely on lies and propaganda.
Such as?
I’m curious, you are not a Christian, are you?
I consider myself a Christian, yes, not that it's your business or place to judge. Read Genesis 1:29
You consider yourself a Christian? That’s a strange way to answer.
Do you believe in God?
Are you atheist?
Do you still smoke dope?
Other drugs?
One example of deliberate misinformation today was that the “ruse”, ie the medical marijuana laws, concern people growing marijuana in their won back yard when that has nothing to do with this laws.
That’s just today.
This is what I mean by it being a scam.
That's not the "scam" you started out discussing, in post #27 (quoted below). Are you no longer claiming that cannabis oil as a treatment for seizures is a "scam"?
And regarding the alleged easy availability of marijuana prescriptions: who is the victim of the "scam"?
'This is sad exploitation of a family, using the daughter’s unfortunate condition to exploit and scam them.
'Or it’s all a scam including the family, as has often been the case in propaganda pieces for “medical marijuana” but I am accepting it on face value that the family is honest and sincere and are victims, not participants.'
I meant what I said. I consider myself a Christian. I believe in God, I believe in salvation and I believe that he gave us MJ, just as he gave us the rest of the "seed bearing plants" of Genesis 1:29
Are you atheist?
Nope.
Do you still smoke dope?
Nope.
Other drugs?
Nope. Incidentally, also blows the lid off the whole "gateway drug" BS. I've never had any desire to do anything man made (and I have strong feelings about anything man made being explicitly anti-American for reasons I can go into, if you like). To this day I am still adverse to prescription pain medication as well.
The ruse is that you, or anyone else, think that's any of their business. If I'm growing it in my backyard, who cares? Not your business.
“believe in salvation and I believe that he gave us MJ, just as he gave us the rest of the “seed bearing plants”
Read some more. It’s sorcery and occultism, smoking dope.
As far as therapeutic uses, that’s fair enough, but the current medical marijuana is not legitimate and a scam.
I really don’t understand your obtuseness and it is sad you either propagandize so readily so are so deluded.
You really are the type that would buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
But in fact, I think you are the type selling it.
I hate leftist liberal propaganda like you spew because it is so dishonest, both factually and intellectually.
There are some aspect that are not legitimate, like the stoners who do go out and use any excuse to get their card, I get it. Unfortunately, that really tends to discount the many legitimate uses and users, and that's a shame.
I hate leftist liberal propaganda like you spew
Again, it's neither liberal or conservative. I know what I know via personal experience. It has nothing to do with what someone told me, or some bastardized view based on incorrect assumptions, falsities and propaganda, which is all you are basing your opinions on.
When you gain some personal experience in the industry, hit me back and we'll talk. Until then, I'm done debating your entirely false premises and ignorance.
I am basing everything I say on personal experience and direct knowledge.
I don’t know where you live, but if you are sincere, your ignorance and naiveté is staggering on multiple topics.
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