By Michael Komorn
A new leaf in the medical marijuana conversation has been turned over as parents desperate to help children with diverse health issues, from autism to severe epilepsy, are turning to medical marijuana to provide relief.
Currently, 18 states, plus Washington, D.C., permit medical marijuana. Among them, a number provide prescriptions to children, with parental supervisions, to treat a host of conditions ranging from autism to cancer to seizures.
(Related: Taylor man steers wheelchair to White House to advocate for medical marijuana users)
Medical marijuana is received differently in different places, by different people. But it certainly draws praise and thanks from one mom, whose little boy can have hundreds of seizures a days and has been unable to find relief despite the array of medications prescribed to him to control seizures. Since treating his condition with the use of marijuana in syrup form, he hasn’t had a seizure for months, she said.
NBC News reports that the boy uses medicine that was grown on a legal, for-medicinal use pot farm. Dr. Margaret Gedde of the Clinicians’ Institute for Cannabis Medicine said it was bred to help control pain, nausea and seizures without being psychoactive, so the child won’t get high.
(Related: Arizona Supreme Court Sets Example for Michigan, Other Medical Marihuana States )
But not everyone is convinced. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that medical marijuana use was not tested in children and shouldn’t be used that way with further study.
“I worry that we just don’t know enough about it,” Dr. Sharon Levy of the Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School told NBC. “I think they’re putting their child at risk of long-term consequences of marijuana use that we don’t fully understand.”
Contact medical marijuana attorney Michael Komorn, at 800-656-3557 for a free consultation.
