Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Copyright: 2001 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Contact:  http://www.knoxnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226
Author: Wayne Wilson, Sacramento Bee

MOM SAYS MARIJUANA MUFFINS MELLOWED SICK 7-YEAR-OLD

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - He's 7 years old and afflicted with a brain disorder 
that has wracked his body with extreme changes in mood, energy and behavior 
for years.

And now he's at the center of a controversy that pits a caring parent 
against a protective bureaucracy on the high-octane battlefield of medical 
marijuana.

It's a war being conducted behind closed doors because it involves a child 
who officials want to take away from a mother who says the cannabis muffins 
she feeds her son have improved his life.

For more than four years, the child had been a terror at home, unmanageable 
at school and a challenge to doctors and nurses who had ministered to him 
during three psychiatric hospitalizations.

And according to a Web site published by his mother, she has tried 
everything to stabilize his illness, administering 19 drugs prescribed by 
16 doctors over a span of four years.

When all failed, the homepage revealed, the mother turned to a home remedy 
approved by her son's pediatrician: muffins flavored by a pinch of marijuana.

Five weeks later, the results were in:

"My son for the first time in his life is laughing and loving life," the 
30-year-old Rocklin, Calif., woman wrote. "He has very little to no angry 
outbursts, he is compliant, is doing great in school, and actually is 
making friends."

Not everyone is enamored of the woman's approach to her son's affliction, 
however. Placer County's Child Protective Services has "taken me to court," 
she said on the Web site, "with accusations of me abusing my son."

Authorities have filed a petition that, under Welfare and Institutions Code 
Section 300, could result in the boy's removal from his home and placement 
elsewhere as a dependent of the court.

Because such proceedings are confidential under state law, neither the 
mother nor her attorney would discuss the matter. County spokeswoman Anita 
Yoder said that the nature of the case precluded the county from commenting.

A hearing Tuesday was just one step in a series of Juvenile Court 
proceedings that will examine whether the boy is being harmed by the 
treatment. Neither side would say when the next hearing would be.

Proponents of medical marijuana have picked up on the controversy and are 
criticizing the county for overreaching in its war against Proposition 215, 
the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. They suggest that the county apparently 
has taken the position that Proposition 215 does not apply to children.

The law permits Californians with a physician's approval to use marijuana 
for medical purposes.

Use of medical marijuana by children has never been studied, according to 
Drew Mattison, co-director of the Center for Cannabis Research at the 
University of California, San Diego.

According to the Web site, which was posted before the Juvenile Court 
hearing Tuesday, the boy's mother says he has bipolar disorder and also has 
been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder, 
impulsive disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder and attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder, but none of the drugs prescribed ever worked.

"I have supported doctors and government agencies attempting anything to 
help my son," the mother said. "The adverse reactions these medications 
have had on him, not to mention the unknown of what they are doing to his 
system, is heart-wrenching to a mother."
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