Pubdate: Sun, 20 Mar 2016
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2016 The Day Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293

EXTEND MARIJUANA USE TO EASE CHILD SUFFERING

The state legislature should pass a law legalizing the use of 
marijuana for patients under 18. Children who have no other options 
should not be denied this medicine.

The worst pain a parent can imagine is the loss of a child. Almost as 
devastating is to watch a child suffer. If the suffering continues 
for a long time, or repeats over and over again, the helplessness is 
agonizing for parents, who would do anything to stop it.

Parents of children who suffer multiple seizures a day, and with 
those episodes, a constant risk of further disability and death, are 
asking the Connecticut General Assembly to legalize the use of 
marijuana for patients under 18. For some children it offers relief 
from the brutal cycle of seizures that make school and play 
impossible and may steal the ability even to walk and talk.

That's what's proposed in HB 5040, cosponsored by Rep. Emmett D. 
Riley, D-Norwich. The bill had a hearing early this month before the 
Joint Committee on Public Health.

The General Assembly should pass the bill and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy 
should sign it.

Normally the legislature does not get involved in what drugs may be 
prescribed either to children or adults. Marijuana is, however, a 
controlled substance, regulated by both state and federal law. The 
bill would amend the 2012 act that legalized marijuana prescription 
and use for adults.

While Connecticut may amend the state prohibition, the federal laws 
remain in effect. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Conn., has told patients 
he is seeking ways to protect the state law from "onerous" federal 
restrictions.

The purpose of the law is to allow palliative, or symptom-relieving, 
care. No one is claiming that marijuana use would cure the 
neurological problems that cause seizures nor heal the other 
conditions, including terminal illness and spinal cord injuries, for 
which the bill would extend it to minors. These children's lives 
remain at risk.

Their health is so compromised that there is no power in the argument 
advanced by some legislators that marijuana's effect on a developing 
brain could be harmful. There can be no quality of life later if none 
is preserved now.

Like many drugs, medicinal marijuana doesn't work for every patient. 
But when it does, when it decreases the frequency and severity of 
seizures, for example, it can alleviate the affliction and the 
inhumane demand that parents watch their children suffer, unable to help.

On Monday, Cyndimae Meehan, 13, formerly of Montville and recently 
living in Maine because that state allowed marijuana treatment 
currently illegal in Connecticut, died quietly in her father's arms.

Her parents did not know she would die so soon, but with the level of 
her illness it was a constant possibility. While being treated with a 
specific strain of marijuana oil, Cyndimae experienced fewer and less 
severe seizures.

While they could not save their daughter, her parents' decision to 
treat her in Maine made the last two years of her life far better.

This is not the first time the legislature faces this issue. 
Cyndiemae's mother, Susan Meehan, and other parents testified last 
session, as many did this month. Many bills that are initially 
controversial seem to need an introductory session for constituents 
and legislators to have time to reflect on the consequences.

This is the second time around for medical marijuana legalization for 
children. In the interim the rewritten bill has gained the support of 
the departments of public health and consumer protection and the 
state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It's time. Pediatricians deserve this added tool to stop the 
suffering when they can.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom