Undergreen Railroad: For Parents of Sick Children, It’s Move or Break the Law
Mar 14 2014 (IPS News) (Abridged version.)
(Note: Dharmanol™ Whole Plant contains, among other medicinally potent cannabinoids, THCA .)
Beth Collins recently picked up and moved from Virginia to Colorado, but it wasn’t for the typical reasons: new job, better schools, nicer weather. Beth Collins’ 14-year-old daughter, Jennifer, has intractable epilepsy. Medical cannabis eases her frequent seizures, but it’s illegal in their home state.
“We got here the first week in December 2013. She has been on THCA ,” Collins told IPS. “She takes it three times a day. We are seeing a 70 to 90 percent decrease in seizures . She’s been on the medication now for close to two months.”"It's been a huge gift."
Prior to the THCA , Jennifer tried a variety of drugs and diets, but they all had bad side effects, her mother says.
“She’s feeling better, but misses her dad, her sister, and her friends. Just she and I came out here first. We want to make sure it (medical cannabis) works before we sell our house,” Mrs. Collins said, adding that her family will probably be forced to permanently relocate from Virginia to Colorado.
“I can’t leave Colorado with the medicine. They have pretty harsh fines [in Virginia]."
The Collins family is just one of hundreds that have migrated to the states of Colorado and Washington to access medical cannabis to treat their children or other relatives after voters in those states legalized the drug.
An estimated 36,284 people moved to Colorado in 2013, almost 8,000 more than the year before, according to the Daily Beast. A good part of this increase is believed to be due to families migrating for medical cannabis, legal recreational cannabis, and cannabis-related business opportunities.
At least 200 families moved after cannibis oil was featured in a documentary called “Weed” by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of the cable television news station CNN.
Mrs. Kim Clark, an eighth generation Georgian, moved with her son Caden Clark from Georgia to Colorado. The Clark's 10-year-old son Caden Clark has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a catastrophic form of epilepsy that causes him to have seizures from 10 to 20 times a day.
“He’s never had a seizure-free day in his life, ever,” said Kim Clark.
The 10-year-old Caden was subjected to everything the legal medical community could offer him including prescription medications with severe side effects; a starvation diet; and severing the corpus callosum connecting brain hemispheres. Even a partial lobotomy failed to stop his seizures.
“We are not anti-science people. We are very pro-science people. Our child has had a lobotomy per science. It just didn’t work for him,” she told IPS.
The Clarks are on a waiting list for cannabis oil and said they had just received a phone call that their medicine might be ready as early as next week.
“We saw the special that Sanjay Gupta did on CNN about Charlotte Figi [a child whose epilepsy was cured by cannabis oil]. I took it to my husband, who is a narcotics officer in Atlanta, Georgia,” Clark said. “He’s the guardian of the drug vault, so there’s a bit of a conflict of interest there.
“When I approached him, my husband is highly anti-drug. He was like ‘not happening, anywhere.’ I had to bring the science hard and heavy -- with of course our son (Caden) dying in front of us. It had to be really convincing,” she recalled. “We packed up everything. It’s very hard.”
Kim Clark’s husband and their other son Jackson stayed in Georgia. “We’re living in separate states. It’s what we have to do. Our older son actually said it. Jackson looked at us, and he said, how can we not do it if we love him? That became our mantra, our resounding call to Colorado,” Mrs. Clark said.
HB 885 is a bill currently pending in the state that would allow for medical cannabis to be administered to patients like Caden suffering from seizure disorders. Kim Clark is bitter that her home state has not yet legalised medical cannabis and considers her and her son Caden to be “refugees.” She said eventually her family will run out of savings and will have to sell their house in Georgia in order to support a split household that is half living in Colorado.
Helping with the huge expenses involved in uprooting a family from one state to another are grassroots organizations like the Undergreen Railroad, a twist on the historic “Underground Railroad” of the 1800's that helped slaves escape to free states and Canada .
Another charity, Ride to Give, has raised 12,000 dollars for one family, the Coxes, who relocated from Georgia to Colorado to access medical cannabis for their ailing child, Haleigh, who also suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Mrs. Nicole Mattison tells a similar story. “We moved in January from Tennessee to Colorado for our two-year-old daughter Millie,” she told IPS.
“It’s been a bit of an undertaking, but so far it’s been well worth it,” she said. “Our daughter is diagnosed with intractable infantile spasms.”
Like other parents, the Mattisons had tried everything legal medical science offered their daughter without success -- including a starvation diet that, as an unwelcome side-effect, caused temporary kidney failure.
Mattison has been giving Millie THCA, with amazing results. “She’s been on it for six weeks now. We’ve seen a 75 to 90 percent decrease . She hasn’t had any infantile spasms.”
Mattison’s whole family made the move. “My husband owned a landscape company in Tennessee. We sold that to help fund the move. Currently, neither one of us have a job. It’s been really tough. We have two other children,” she said. “We left our church, our established support group.”
But Mattison does not regret her decision. “I would take the hardships any day for the possibility that Millie could one day have an improved quality of life.”
http://www.ipsnews.net
Mar 14 2014 (IPS News) (Abridged version.)
(Note: Dharmanol™ Whole Plant contains, among other medicinally potent cannabinoids, THCA .)
Beth Collins recently picked up and moved from Virginia to Colorado, but it wasn’t for the typical reasons: new job, better schools, nicer weather. Beth Collins’ 14-year-old daughter, Jennifer, has intractable epilepsy. Medical cannabis eases her frequent seizures, but it’s illegal in their home state.
“We got here the first week in December 2013. She has been on THCA ,” Collins told IPS. “She takes it three times a day. We are seeing a 70 to 90 percent decrease in seizures . She’s been on the medication now for close to two months.”"It's been a huge gift."
Prior to the THCA , Jennifer tried a variety of drugs and diets, but they all had bad side effects, her mother says.
“She’s feeling better, but misses her dad, her sister, and her friends. Just she and I came out here first. We want to make sure it (medical cannabis) works before we sell our house,” Mrs. Collins said, adding that her family will probably be forced to permanently relocate from Virginia to Colorado.
“I can’t leave Colorado with the medicine. They have pretty harsh fines [in Virginia]."
The Collins family is just one of hundreds that have migrated to the states of Colorado and Washington to access medical cannabis to treat their children or other relatives after voters in those states legalized the drug.
An estimated 36,284 people moved to Colorado in 2013, almost 8,000 more than the year before, according to the Daily Beast. A good part of this increase is believed to be due to families migrating for medical cannabis, legal recreational cannabis, and cannabis-related business opportunities.
At least 200 families moved after cannibis oil was featured in a documentary called “Weed” by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of the cable television news station CNN.
Mrs. Kim Clark, an eighth generation Georgian, moved with her son Caden Clark from Georgia to Colorado. The Clark's 10-year-old son Caden Clark has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a catastrophic form of epilepsy that causes him to have seizures from 10 to 20 times a day.
“He’s never had a seizure-free day in his life, ever,” said Kim Clark.
The 10-year-old Caden was subjected to everything the legal medical community could offer him including prescription medications with severe side effects; a starvation diet; and severing the corpus callosum connecting brain hemispheres. Even a partial lobotomy failed to stop his seizures.
“We are not anti-science people. We are very pro-science people. Our child has had a lobotomy per science. It just didn’t work for him,” she told IPS.
The Clarks are on a waiting list for cannabis oil and said they had just received a phone call that their medicine might be ready as early as next week.
“We saw the special that Sanjay Gupta did on CNN about Charlotte Figi [a child whose epilepsy was cured by cannabis oil]. I took it to my husband, who is a narcotics officer in Atlanta, Georgia,” Clark said. “He’s the guardian of the drug vault, so there’s a bit of a conflict of interest there.
“When I approached him, my husband is highly anti-drug. He was like ‘not happening, anywhere.’ I had to bring the science hard and heavy -- with of course our son (Caden) dying in front of us. It had to be really convincing,” she recalled. “We packed up everything. It’s very hard.”
Kim Clark’s husband and their other son Jackson stayed in Georgia. “We’re living in separate states. It’s what we have to do. Our older son actually said it. Jackson looked at us, and he said, how can we not do it if we love him? That became our mantra, our resounding call to Colorado,” Mrs. Clark said.
HB 885 is a bill currently pending in the state that would allow for medical cannabis to be administered to patients like Caden suffering from seizure disorders. Kim Clark is bitter that her home state has not yet legalised medical cannabis and considers her and her son Caden to be “refugees.” She said eventually her family will run out of savings and will have to sell their house in Georgia in order to support a split household that is half living in Colorado.
Helping with the huge expenses involved in uprooting a family from one state to another are grassroots organizations like the Undergreen Railroad, a twist on the historic “Underground Railroad” of the 1800's that helped slaves escape to free states and Canada .
Another charity, Ride to Give, has raised 12,000 dollars for one family, the Coxes, who relocated from Georgia to Colorado to access medical cannabis for their ailing child, Haleigh, who also suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Mrs. Nicole Mattison tells a similar story. “We moved in January from Tennessee to Colorado for our two-year-old daughter Millie,” she told IPS.
“It’s been a bit of an undertaking, but so far it’s been well worth it,” she said. “Our daughter is diagnosed with intractable infantile spasms.”
Like other parents, the Mattisons had tried everything legal medical science offered their daughter without success -- including a starvation diet that, as an unwelcome side-effect, caused temporary kidney failure.
Mattison has been giving Millie THCA, with amazing results. “She’s been on it for six weeks now. We’ve seen a 75 to 90 percent decrease . She hasn’t had any infantile spasms.”
Mattison’s whole family made the move. “My husband owned a landscape company in Tennessee. We sold that to help fund the move. Currently, neither one of us have a job. It’s been really tough. We have two other children,” she said. “We left our church, our established support group.”
But Mattison does not regret her decision. “I would take the hardships any day for the possibility that Millie could one day have an improved quality of life.”
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