Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2014
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2014 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact:  http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Aaron Gould Sheinin

EXPERTS VOUCH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Bill Would OK Oil That Blocks Kids' Seizures. 'It's Not Getting Him
High, It's Just Getting Him Well,' Dad Testifies.

Two years ago, Paige Figi's daughter Charlotte suffered hundreds of
seizures a day. Prescription drugs did nothing but provide severe side
effects.

Now, Charlotte is 99.8 percent seizure-free, Figi said, thanks to one
simple thing: medical marijuana.

Figi, a Colorado mother and activist, told Georgia legislators Monday
that Rep. Allen Peake's plan to legalize a single compound derived
from marijuana will save the lives of patients suffering from certain
seizure disorders.

"They will not live to adulthood" without it, Figi told the Georgia
House Health and Human Services Committee. "They will die from these
syndromes."

The committee will hold a second hearing on the bill Thursday. No vote
was taken Monday.

Peake, R-Macon, has proposed House Bill 885 that would create a strict
set of guidelines to allow certain patients suffering from seizure
disorders access to cannabis oil. Peake said he was prompted to
introduce the bill after meeting a Macon girl who suffers from
seizures that no legal medicine has helped.

Joel Stanley, co-founder of Realm of Caring Foundation, has bred the
particular strain of marijuana that creates the cannabis oil now known
as Charlotte's Web, after Figi's daughter.

Stanley said his operation follows strict Colorado regulations for
plant cultivation and Food and Drug Administration practices for
manufacturing plant-based nutritional supplements.

The cannabis oil used in Colorado is very low in THC, the chemical
compound that gets a marijuana user high, Stanley said.

"That oil is a known quantity," Stanley said. "These families behind
me, many of them have exhausted pharmaceutical options. The parents
behind me, the folks behind me in general are just people who love
their kids. They're not pot activists and neither am I."

Aaron Keplinger's son Hunter suffers from seizure disorders and tried
more than a dozen drugs to no avail.

Hunter's days were wildly, and horribly, varied.

"Screaming 24 hours a day. Sleeping 24 hours a day, awake 24 hours a
day," Keplinger said.

Then he heard about Paige Figi and her daughter. He and his family
moved to Colorado, and Hunter is taking Charlotte's Web and today is
largely seizure-free.

"It's not getting him high, it's just getting him well," Keplinger
said.

Peake's bill has gained the support of the Medical Association of
Georgia, the state's largest group of physicians.

Dr. Mike Green of Macon, a member of the group's board, said they are
convinced "this is not a recreational drug. This is not a euphoric
drug. I would posit this is not marijuana. This is an extract from a
plant."

But Dr. Robert Flamini, an Atlanta child neurologist who is studying
child seizure disorders, warned that much is still not known about
cannabis oil.

"We do not have guidelines for appropriate dosing, and we do not have
details of potential side effects," Flamini said.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has authorized trials of an
established British drug, Epidolex, that comes from marijuana.

Sue Rusche, president of the Atlanta-based National Families in
Action, said Epidolex offers a much better option.

The makers of Charlotte's Web, she said, "cannot guarantee Charlotte's
Web that it is free of pesticides, mold" and other impurities.

"It has not been tested in animal trials."

Children, she said, should "have the right to an experimental drug
that is pure, that is free of contaminants that can hurt them and is
safe for them to take in FDA trials."

Earlier Monday, Julianne Thompson, the cofounder of the Atlanta Tea
Party, and Kay Godwin of Conservatives in Action, announced they, too,
would support HB 885.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D