Father Jailed for Giving Cannabis to Extremely Ill Daughter

It’s easy these days to get caught up in the morass of political and moral quicksand surrounding cannabis. I, myself, have taken up the pitchfork on more than one occasion and gone after the Kevin Sabets and Nancy Graces of the world. I have written scathing rebuttals to erroneous and selfish accounts of cannabis. I have been vocal in my support of legal cannabis, on an intellectual level.

However, sometimes I come across a story that truly reminds me why I write for Weedist, and why it is a sacred honor to have a somewhat visible presence on this battle field. Such a story came to me last week.

I would like to introduce you all to Adam Koessler. Adam is an Australian citizen who has been arrested for giving his daughter cannabis oil. That sentence, taken at face value, seems reasonable enough, but the truth is so much more complex.

Adam’s daughter, Rumer, is 2 years old and suffers from stage 4 neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a severe cancer that begins in the nerve tissue and causes significant harm to the digestive system. Stage 4 is as bad as it gets. The tumor has spread to Rumer’s lymph nodes and beyond. I don’t know for sure, but I think she’s terminal.

Adam, weary of watching his little girl shrivel away and without any other options, stepped outside of Australian law, procured cannabis oil, and gave some to Rumer on a bit of coconut. Adam was blown away by what he saw. Within just a few days of starting the cannabis oil, “her cancer-ridden little body was alive again – Rumer had almost instant quality of life. She would say, ‘Daddy, tummy’s not sore’ and she would be able to eat like a champion and began to gain weight. Her energy was up and she wanted to go outside with me instead of lay on her back with her legs curled up. Her skin color came back, her eyes were sparkling again, and we just looked at each other in complete amazement.”

I’m not prone to sentimentality and am not what you would call a crier. But I’ll admit to tearing up at reading that comment from Adam. I am a father and I would kill to protect my kids, without hesitation. So, giving his daughter some safe and astoundingly effective cannabis oil hardly seems a punishable offense.

Not so in Australia. I often lament the idiocy of American federal cannabis law, but Australian drug policy is like America’s was in the good old days of The Gipper (Ronald Regan, for the young people). Australia, like America, schedules cannabis in the most restricted federal category. However, unlike America where medical cannabis has been largely accepted and the feds are growing more disinclined to interfere with state regulations, Australia still treats any cannabis infraction whatsoever like it was a giant cocaine cartel bust.

Rumer, after Adam’s arrest, has since gone back to the hospital and is presumably getting worse again without her cannabis oil. Adam was arrested again, this time for violating a court order that he stay away from his daughter. He visited with her in the hospital. Also, though it has not been confirmed, it appears the police who came to arrest Adam refused to separate him from his daughter and let him spend a few hours with her before taking him into custody.

Will the Australian government soften in cases like this or do they think that forcing a child into abject misery is good for their reelection campaigns? It would seem that even the police aren’t behind this law. I don’t know what we can do for Rumer and Adam, but I know we can share this story with everyone we know until enough egg is on the face of the Australian lawmakers that they will finally do the right thing.

If they consider Adam a criminal for helping his sick child, what does that make the people who are pushing her back into a tortuous existence, now without an obviously loving father to be by her side?

I don’t even know what I would do in his shoes. He’s in jail while his daughter withers. To compound matters, he now knows that there is a medicine out there that might save his daughter’s life, and neither of them can get it to her. My heart is breaking for this family. Please share this ad nauseum, then share it again.