Nbc News: Medical Marijuana For Kids

[+washtenaut]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/medical-marijuana-kids-some-praise-results-while-others-worry-about-6C10506407

 

Zaki Jackson was 6 months old when doctors diagnosed him with a form of epilepsy so severe that it sparked as many as 250 seizures a day.

For years his mom, Heather Jackson, feared for his life. “He would stop breathing,” she told NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman. “All the air leaves his lungs and he does not take another breath until that seizure is over.”

After 10 years and 17 medications, Zaki wasn’t getting any better. Then, finally, his doctor wrote a prescription for a medication that calmed the electrical storms in Zaki’s brain. The surprise was that it wasn’t for a standard anti-seizure medication -- it was a prescription for marijuana.

Zaki’s case isn’t unusual as it may seem. Eighteen states, plus Washington, D.C., allow use of medical marijuana. A number of them provide prescriptions to children, with parental supervision, to treat a host of ills, ranging from autism to cancer to seizures.

Critics, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, argue that the remedy hasn’t been clinically tested in kids and might have some long-term ramifications.

Zaki’s parents were surprised at first and a bit taken aback. “We are Christians,” Jackson said. “We are conservative. And we’re using medical marijuana. That’s a kind of big hump for people to get over. Despite the stigma associated with cannabis, we owed it to Zaki to give it a try.”

Jackson said the results were immediate and stunning. “I probably stared at him for a good three hours after his first dose and then I fell asleep. I didn’t feel any seizures after his first dose,” his mother said.

In fact, it’s been eight months since Zaki’s last seizure and he's finally starting to do normal kid activities, like ride a swing.

Zaki's pot is provided specifically for him by a team of brothers who legally grow medical marijuana. It has been bred to have low levels of TCH, but higher levels of another cannabinoid called cannabidiol, or CBD.

While both cannabinoids impact pain, nausea and seizures, CBD isn’t psychoactive, said Dr. Margaret Gedde of the Clinicians’ Institute for Cannabis Medicine. That means that kids using this type of marijuana won’t get high.

(continued along with video.  see the link)

[t-pain]

those brothers are helping a lot of patients with that high cbd strain.

 

if you read the comment threads on stories like this, you can see a lot of worried parents looking for anything that will help their kids or loved ones.

some of them mentioned moving to that state just to get access to that medication.

 

"Critics, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, argue that the remedy hasn’t been clinically tested in kids and might have some long-term ramifications."

 

barely any remedy or medication is ever tested on children. because children dont have the legal rights to consent to medical experiments.

still dont know the long term effects on ritalin. oh wait, we do, its absolutely terrifying.

 

 

Another thirty year study at the University of California followed around 400 kids
with ADHD that were treated with stimulant drugs during childhood. When those kids
reached their mid to late 20s, researchers discovered they took up cigarette smoking
earlier, smoked more heavily, and were more likely to abuse cocaine and other stimulants
as adults (Lambert 1999).

 

ritalin, the real gateway drug.

Edited July 10, 2013 by t-pain

[GregS]

Saw it. The paranoid delusional opposition whine that studies are inadequate to demonstrate safe use. We can expect them to continue to whine while at the same time continue to stand in the way of the research they complain is necessary.

[+washtenaut]

“I worry that we just don’t know enough about it,” said Dr. Sharon Levy, of the Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. “I think they’re putting their child at risk of long-term consequences of marijuana use that we don’t fully understand.”

 

 

To hear these so called medical experts is maddening.  They stand up and claim that this parent shouldn't use cannabis on their child because they don't know about the long term effects on the child.

 

What about the effects of 250 seizures a day on the child?  Is she that brainwashed as to the evils of cannabis that she can think it worse than 250 seizures a day?  This is supposedly an educated woman!!

[t-pain]

its great when the reporter asked her that question.

you can see ms levy stutter and frown, then she still has to repeat the lies and back to smirking.

 

oh theres two videos. thats confusing. i am referring to the one hosted by brian williams.

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/52434789

this one^^

 

heres the other video,

http://www.today.com/video/today/52438499