Pubdate: Wed, 25 Dec 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Bob Young
Page: B1

MEDICAL-POT ENTREPRENEURS GIVE DAD GIFT OF HOPE FOR SON

Growing Advise, Pound of Rare Strain

Plant's Chemicals Help Lessen Boy's Seizures

This is a holiday story you probably haven't seen before.

After Ryan Day publicly told his story of struggling to get and grow
legal marijuana to treat his son's severe epilepsy, some pot
entrepreneurs responded with generosity.

Two leaders in Seattle's medical-marijuana industry, Alex Cooley and
Ryan Kunkel, reached out to the Day family - and are expanding their
charity to others in need during the holiday season.

Cooley, who runs a fully permitted growing operation in Seattle,
visited Day's Thurston County house to advise him on how to grow rare
strains of pot that are low in psychoactive chemicals but high in
cannabidiol, or CBD, which is believed to have therapeutic qualities.

Kunkel, owner of five Have A Heart dispensaries, had another idea. He
bought from Cooley a pound of the rare strain, Sour Tsunami #3, that
Day was seeking. Then he gave it to Day for his 5-year-old son, Haiden.

Kunkel's 11-year-old daughter and a friend made a card decorated with
messages of hope and kindness, Day said.

"My wife and I were driven to tears," said Day, a former Marine.
"These are not shadowy guys trying to make tons of money with guns
strapped to their bodies. They really care about their community."

When Day first bought an ounce of Sour Tsunami #3 at a Seattle
dispensary, it cost $300. Day turned the dried flowers into a
concentrated extract that he added to Haiden's applesauce.

It seemed to calm Haiden's frequent seizures. But the ounce amounted
to just a week's supply, meaning Haiden's marijuana could cost his
parents roughly $15,000 a year, out of pocket, because insurance won't
cover a federally prohibited drug.

Day invested more than $2,000 in growing lights and equipment, but his
first plants died because his soil was too acidic.

Kunkel said the pound he gave the Day family has a wholesale value of
more than $2,000. It should last about four months, enough time for
Day to grow and harvest new plants.

Cooley and Kunkel aren't the only entrepreneurs who stepped up to
help, Day noted. Dax Colwell of New Leaf Enterprises announced last
month a plan to provide low-cost or no-cost CBD concentrates to
patients with severe forms of epilepsy.

Day said he got some free medicine from Colwell in concentrate form.
But because Day has made his own extract and other parents don't know
how, he said he would leave Colwell's medicine to those parents while
he produces his own.

Inspired to do more, Cooley has given 2 pounds of high CBD marijuana
to four dispensaries so that it can be donated to patients facing
economic hardship. The dispensaries are Northwest Patient Resource
Center, Fweedom Collective, Urban Healing Collective and Have A Heart.

Pot entrepreneurs are involved in other holiday giving, such as local
food and toy drives, Kunkel said, but they tend not to publicize their
good deeds.

John Davis, CEO of Northwest Patient Resource Center, said his and
other dispensaries have provided free or low-cost products to needy
patients year-round.

"I understand why some in the medical-marijuana community want to
remain quiet," Day said. "We're just in awe of their generosity."
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MAP posted-by: Matt