Pubdate: Wed, 21 May 2014
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Justin Giovannetti
Page: S3

CANNABIS USED TO TREAT CHILD'S SEIZURES

Toddler had suffered up to 200 episodes a day until family started
giving her oil product extracted from hemp

Two-year-old Kyla Williams hasn't learned to walk or talk. Her
development stopped as she suffered as many as 200 seizures daily and
no medication helped. Now the girl's family says she hasn't had a
seizure in a week, ever since they began giving her cannabis oil
extracted from hemp.

The oil being used by the toddler has high amounts of cannabidiol,
known as CBD, the main ingredient in medical marijuana, and almost no
psychoactive ingredients. Its use is in a legal "grey area," according
to proponents.

Only dried marijuana is currently regulated by Health Canada; the sale
of resin and oil by growers is forbidden. The hemp from which the
cannabis oil is being extracted is supposed to be destroyed by farmers
under federal regulations. However, few controls seem to govern the
dispensary and parents providing the two-year-old with the oil.

Despite the lack of legal clarity, Kyla is continuing to use her
unconventional medicine. On Sunday evening, she had been seizure-free
for a week.

"Within 20 minutes of administering it the first time, she stopped her
seizures completely. She had six seizures earlier as I said goodbye to
her. It was so hard to watch," grandmother Elaine Nuessler said.

On Saturday, the girl's grandfather spoke publicly about the need for
greater access to the medical marijuana-like substance. A former RCMP
officer, Chris Nuessler told a crowd of 60 in Summerland, B.C., that
his views on marijuana have changed significantly since his
granddaughter began showing signs of uncontrollable epilepsy when she
was six months old.

"We come from a background where we've never dealt with marijuana
before in our lives," said Ms. Nuessler. "We've discovered that it's a
healing plant."

For more than a year, Kyla was treated with a battery of prescription
drugs. None worked and many made her condition worse. Due to the
epilepsy, the girl also suffers from serious visual
impairments.

After being told by physicians that the girl's life would be cut short
by the seizures, the family contacted Jim Leslie at the Nation's Best
Weeds Society, a dispensary in Vancouver's east end. Aided by
anecdotal evidence that cannabis with high levels of CBD was being
used successfully in the United States, Mr. Leslie set out to find
something similar in Canada.

He soon came across an often discarded piece of hemp that is high in
CBD. "We've got a winner here," he remembers thinking when he saw the
results of tests on the plant. "A small, small percentage of farmers
are diverting the CBD-rich part of the plants to us," said Mr. Leslie.

The Vancouver-based dispensary has a note from Kyla's pediatric
physician recommending cannabis. Under federal rules, the family
should be providing the two-year-old with medical marijuana in it's
more traditional form.

In the past, Canadians have moved to the U.S. to gain access to the
oil. In late 2013, the parents of 13-month-old Kaitlyn Pogson moved to
Colorado to obtain the drug, hoping it would help with their
daughter's severe seizures.

With no medical trials showing that cannabis helps children with
seizures, Arthur Schafer warned that the impact of the drug on a
child's brain remains unknown.

"The rigorous scientific evidence isn't there, but the anecdotal
evidence seems quite promising. Would a reasonable and loving parent
take the risk of giving their child medication that could cause
serious harm? Not unless the situation is desperate and nothing else
has worked," said Mr. Schafer, the director of the Centre for
Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.

"If the harm is there in front of you daily in seizures, the
reasonable and loving parent might take the risk. I would."
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MAP posted-by: Matt