Title: Baby Taken Off Hospice After Being Given Cannabis Oil – Now the Govt is Taking it Away From Her Source:
Free Thought Project URL Source:http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ba ... -oil-govt/#hbjk3wRc0G2rQ7iy.99 Published:Feb 6, 2016 Author:Matt Agorist Post Date:2016-02-06 12:45:47 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:6590 Comments:47
Last year, Meagan and Brandon Holts daughter Maddie, who suffers from a rare and debilitating disease called Zellweger Syndrome, was given only a short time to live, and her family was forced to do what no family can ever imagine put a 2-year-old in Hospice care.
Maddie is deaf and blind, and entirely dependent upon round the clock medical care. Prior to being placed in Hospice care, Maddie developed life-threatening horrific seizures which sent her health into a downward spiral.
For months, the family administered several prescriptions that were intended to help Maddie. However, none of them seemed to work and, in fact, had a negative impact on her health.
After months of watching Maddies health deteriorate, doctors had no more options, and her parents were preparing to say goodbye. Maddie was going to spend her last days alive on life support in a hospital bed.
But then something amazing happened. Meagan began researching the effects of cannabis on intractable, or untreatable epilepsy.
She found one last hope, cannabis.
Being in Washington state, where medical and recreational marijuana is legal, Meagan got authorization, and then a beautiful group of people began donating whole plant cannabis extract to their family.
From the first dose, Meagan says, they immediately noticed a positive shift in her health. Maddies health improved exponentially, and within days she was off hospice, on palliative care, and working towards recovering from a rough year.
Without cannabis, she would be a vegetable, or worse, dead, explained Meagan Tuesday, to the House Commerce and Gaming Committee.
But all this hope would quickly be brought to an end thanks to a law that makes it illegal for growers to share cannabis with families like Meagan and Maddie who need this powerful medicine.
But, Meagan, Brandon, and Maddie are fighters and Meagan has been pushing for legislative action, HB 2629, to reverse this ridiculous law.
During the Committee hearing on Tuesday, Meagan took to the podium to deliver a moving speech.
This Bill is needed, so families like ours, who are in a situation no one should be in, can legally accept donations of a very expensive medication.
I want to read a quote that left me with a very heavy heart. This is the last harvest of cannatonic for the children. This grow is no longer legal, so I can no longer donate healing medicine, at no charge, to the parents of children, whom doctors have told to go to Hospice and die. I have never had a harvest for the children that made me sad beyond measure. It will be processed into oil in under five weeks and distributed in two. What will the medically abandoned children and their parents do then?
If it werent for the generosity of the members of the cannabis community, we would not have been able to treat her. This Bill would allow me to be legally given life-sustaining medicine for my child. It would allow home growing of cannabis, which, in turn, could be processed and given to the patients that need it the most.
I do not see anything wrong with sharing quality medicine. Being able to grow and share a plant seems reasonable. Please approve House Bill 2629, so me and my child are no longer criminals.
Michael Scott is a close friend of the family, activist, and person responsible for putting together the moving video below. When speaking with the Free Thought Project, Scott said Its so very sad that these kind, loving folks are having to fight for the right to help their daughter and heal her. Weve watched as Maddie has begun to heal. The damages Maddie suffers from now are from the medications the doctors gave her! Maddie is going through withdraws its not right, not right at all.
When the Free Thought Project reached out to Meagan for a statement, she replied with the following powerful words,
The most important thing out of all of this that I want the legislators and really the government as whole, to realize is that this is more than just being allowed to share and grow cannabis. This is about the right to treat my daughter with a natural medicine.
How can it be ok to want to over medicate our children? Why should a child who is on hospice suffering from a terminal disease, not be allowed to chose to use a healing plant that allows them to enjoy their final days?
Cannabis allows my child to be herself. It allows her to enjoy the world while she is here. I cant say for certain that cannabis will treat her Zellweger Syndrome. I still wake up to the reality that my child has already exceeded her life expectancy and every day could be our last. But what I do know is that with whole plant extract oil she is comfortable, coherent, and able to enjoy the little things, like a walk outside or play time with her sister.
The federal government needs to stop criminalizing innocent people for a plant. I am doing what any good parent would do and doing what is best for my childs quality of life.
On Tuesday, the House Committee will be hosting an open forum and deciding whether or not this Bill will move forward.
The family is asking that everyone contact the committee members and voice your support of this Bill.
The e-mail addresses for all the representatives in the Commerce & Gaming Committee are below:
Christopher.Hurst@leg.wa.gov
Sharon.Wylie@leg.wa.gov
Cary.Condotta@leg.wa.gov
Jeff.Holy@leg.wa.gov
Brian.Blake@leg.wa.gov
Steve.Kirby@leg.wa.gov
Elizabeth.Scott@leg.wa.gov
Kevin.VanDeWege@leg.wa.gov
Brandon.Vick@leg.wa.gov
The time for action is now.
The annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society took place in early December, where the largest study presented there confirmed the astounding benefits of medical cannabis to treat seizures.
Epilepsy affects one in 26 Americans during their lifetime, with one-third having a form of the condition that resists treatment or effective management, such as Maddies.
The findings of this study add to the growing body of evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive extract of cannabis, can provide the best option for intractable epilepsy.
Of 261 patients given CBD treatment, 45% experienced a significant reduction in seizure frequency, and 9% were seizure-free at 3 months. Some children continued to experience benefits after the trial ended, even one year after.
In the subsequent periods, which are very encouraging, 9 percent of all patients and 13 percent of those with Dravet Syndrome epilepsy were seizure-free. Many have never been seizure-free before, said lead author Dr. Orrin Devinsky.
The Free Thought Project has covered many stories of CBD providing miraculous benefits to children suffering from treatment-resistant epileptic seizures. With scientific evidence piling up, it is no longer deniable that cannabis provides a host of medical treatments.
Even in spite of cannabis prohibition, politicians are starting to break the law to provide people with cannabis. Rep. Allen Peake, a Georgia lawmaker, admitted that he defies unjust cannabis prohibition by bringing medical cannabis into Georgia from states where it is legal, such as Colorado. He recently delivered medical cannabis to a mother whose son suffers from seizures.
The times are changing, and those who continue to throw people in cages or kill them for possessing a plant are being exposed for the vile tyrants they are.
"The findings of this study add to the growing body of evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive extract of cannabis, can provide the best option for intractable epilepsy."
CBD is a extract of cannabis, purified and concentrated to the proper dose. That's NOT what their child was given.
Their child was given cannabis oil -- liquid marijuana. No one knows what's in it, whether or not it's contaminated, how much to give or how often to give it. They also don't know the side effects or if there are any drug interactions.
"Why should a child who is on hospice suffering from a terminal disease, not be allowed to chose to use a healing plant that allows them to enjoy their final days?"
Aha! There's the reason they don't care about these things. She's going to die anyways, so what the f**k.
Nice attitude. Hey, if she's gong to die anyways, could we harvest some of her organs while she's still alive?
Nice attitude. Hey, if she's gong to die anyways, could we harvest some of her organs while she's still alive?
Hey, everyone's going to die, so nothing matters anyway, right?
You for one should be applauding this woman for doing what everyone who doesn't like laws are told to do: Lobby your legislature to have the law changed. And if she succeeds, I expect you, as a constant voice in favor of the law, to fully support her actions that are legal under the new law.
In post #5, Stoner insists that her parents are doing this only for their chid and asks why that is any of our business. Thank you for pointing out why it IS our business.
"And if she succeeds, I expect you, as a constant voice in favor of the law, to fully support her actions that are legal under the new law."
It would remain illegal under federal law, therefore I wouldn't support it. If passed I would, however, support the federal charge of sedition against every legislator who voted for it.
That you would see fit to deprive loving parents of the treatment of their choice that has demonstrated an overwhelming likelihood of allowing a baby to return home from hospice care demonstrates how morally bankrupt you are. Obviously you have no kids, otherwise you may be able to empathize with what these parents have been through. Not that having kids is a requirement for empathizing.
State control of peoples lives, and deaths, is something you are fine with.
If passed I would, however, support the federal charge of sedition against every legislator who voted for it.
Then you support something that is patently unconstitutional and which violates state's rights, and at minimum, criminalizes the First Amendment right of state legislatures to express their political views. I.e. you support illegal activity.
"That you would see fit to deprive loving parents of the treatment of their choice that has demonstrated an overwhelming likelihood of allowing a baby to return home from hospice care demonstrates how morally bankrupt you are."
I have no control over what they do to their baby. My concern is that these ignorant parents are trying to legalize what they're doing so others can do it to their babies.
"Then you support something that is patently unconstitutional and which violates state's rights, and at minimum, criminalizes the First Amendment right of state legislatures to express their political views. I.e. you support illegal activity."
So you support the right of a state to reinstitute segregation in violation of federal civil rights laws to the contrary? I guess you do, since you support the right of a state to violate federal drug laws.
My concern is that these ignorant parents are trying to legalize what they're doing so others can do it to their babies.
These parents are far more knowledgeable about their child's medical history than you are. Ignorant, by definition, better describes your knowledge about them.
And if other similarly informed parents have more options for treating their children in similar circumstances, why should your ignorance be permitted to get in the way?
I'm sure they are. But I'm saying they're ignorant about the drugs they're giving their child. And they are. They have no idea what's in that oil.
Just as you probably have no idea what's in many foods that you eat daily. But that doesn't stop you from knowing that eating is important, does it?
Other parents are similarly ignorant, which is why I am against legalization.
So because of your belief, based on nothing, that other parents you have never met are ignorant, those same parents that are, in fact, far more knowledgeable than you are about this oil should be forced to let their children die.
That's what it comes down to. Your ignorance is more significant their their informed decisions.
"At present, the epilepsy community does not know if marijuana is a safe and effective treatment nor do we know the long- term effects that marijuana will have on learning, memory and behavior, especially in infants and young children. This knowledgegap is of particular concern because both clinical data in adolescents and adults and laboratory data in animals demonstrate that there are potential negative effects of marijuana on these critical brain functions." -- American Epilepsy Society Position on Medical Marijuana
So, they are ignorant as well. But at least they are honest enough to admit they do not know.
laboratory data in animals demonstrate that there are potential negative effects of marijuana on these critical brain functions."
Do you have any opinion on whether death has a negative effect on critical brain functions, and whether the negative effect of death, if there is one, exceeds the "potential" negative effect of cannabis oil?