Medical Marijuana
Epileptic Australian Child Clings to Hope for Gov't Cannabis Trial, Source: http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/5/w/e/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.1m5c4d.png/1427112639035.jpg

Bethany Edwards and her younger sister Lara.

Here’s another tale out of Australia about parents who are forced to watch their own children suffer while the government drags its ponderously large feet.

This story focuses on the Edwards family. Brian and Karen are parents to 4 year old Bethany and her younger sister, Lara. Bethany was only 18 months old when she was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Bethany’s neurologist recently put her name in for an experimental study to test the efficacy and safety of medical cannabis for treating childhood epilepsy. The study will only accept 200 patients, and they have to have severe epilepsy and have to have had unsuccessful results with conventional seizure medications.

The Edwards’ say they would be “gutted” if Bethany is denied entrance into the trial. Karen, her mother, says that each day when she has to give Bethany her pharmaceuticals, she feels like she’s also poisoning her daughter. Bethany is on a regimen of anti-epileptics and steroids that are causing her to gain unhealthy weight, have mood swings, insomnia and a compromised immune system.

She tells a story about how once, in public, Bethany had one of her side-effect induced emotional melt downs and passersby made comments like “that child needs a good slap in the face.” Mrs. Edwards says that people can’t understand what’s happening, “just because she’s not in a wheelchair… it’s a disability that you can’t see.”

Many parents have given up waiting for the government to get its shit together and have turned to black market cannabis to help their kids, feeling that even black market cannabis with unverified purity or THC/CBD percentages is preferable to watching their babies, literally, writhe in agony.

In fact, Mrs. Edwards said she would gladly trade the typical side effects of cannabis (fatigue and drowsiness) for the litany of torment her daughter endures at the hands of her disease and the legal drugs that are wrecking her little body.

While I do appreciate that scientists are finally taking up the cause and performing studies, the crawling speed of these trials and any reliable public outcomes are daunting to parents who want to help their kids right now. They are on a giant quest to discern what is already fairly common knowledge among cannabis supporters: cannabis is safe. Trying to prove that cannabis is safe is like trying to prove that water is wet. Some things are just that simple.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully support a system of purity and composition checking for cannabis. Cannabis is still a plant, and poor soil, pesticides, and skill of the grower can and do affect its safety/potency. But let’s focus these “studies” less on whether or not it’s effective (it is) and more on ensuring that the cannabis administered to sick children is clean and properly proportioned for their needs.

Fingers crossed for Bethany and her family, I hope she gets into the trial.