Medical Marijuana
Pasadena Firefighters Hold Fundraiser for Cannabis, Source: http://hometown-pasadena.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/GetInline-4.jpg

Cecilia von Harz

Pasadena firefighters recently held a fundraiser to help mitigate the medical costs of 3-year-old Cecelia von Harz, the daughter of one of the county’s firemen. Young Cecelia has been battling a rare form of kidney cancer for over half of her life.

Not long ago, this poor girl received a session of chemotherapy that damaged her liver so much she can no longer receive that kind of therapy. Because of this, her parents, Jim and Jaclyn von Harz, decided to try a different regiment: cannabis and an organic, sugarless diet. The results they say, have been effective in reducing her tumors.

“She was sick, she was in pain,” says mother Jaclyn von Harz. “But she’s so much better now. She’s happy, she’s energetic.”

Those of us who have been following the remarkable results of medical marijuana, when applied to cancers, will not be shocked by the mother’s statement. Cannabis has shown profound promise as a tumor-attacking, cancer-killer.

Pasadena Firefighters Hold Fundraiser for Cannabis, Source: http://tribktla.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/cecilia-von-harz.jpg?w=1200

Cecilia von Harz

Sadly, as has undoubtedly happened to many others parents, the cannabis oil they need to help their daughter is rather pricey and certainly not covered by health insurance. Chemotherapy is very expensive, has sporadic results, and almost always comes with some gnarly side effects that are often worse than the disease itself. Yet, this treatment is covered by insurance. Trust me, if insurance companies could patent and sell cannabis oil, it would have been legal decades ago.

Quick to hide behind a lack of scientific inquiry, opponents of medical cannabis love to hang-their-hat on downplaying the efficacy of cannabis. The truth is that these companies would fight to make pain pills illegal too, if anyone with a cursory knowledge of gardening could grow a nice Oxycontin shrub and supply their own cheap medicine.

Is it any wonder that people who have trained and dedicated themselves to saving lives are supportive of helping this family get cannabis oil for their child? If anyone has a link to a firemen’s rally to buy beer or Vicodin for a sick child, please forward it to me. However, for now, I’m content to believe that cannabis is alone on the list of federally scheduled substances that is worthy of a firefighter’s fundraiser.

“We’re a very close-knit department,” says county Fire Chief Daryl Osby. “We say we’re a family and we truly are a family. One of our family members is struggling, and we’re here to help him.”

Amen.