"J" is an autistic child who also has post-surgical and bowel-related chronic pain. His autism manifested itself as aggression rather than simple withdrawal, resulting in severe behavioral problems. Authorities in Rhode Island granted the parents a license to give their child medical marijuana (they opted to do so in the form of brownies). The results were dramatic:
This post is likely to elicit strong opinions; I would encourage everyone to at least browse the original source articles rather than basing judgments only on the excerpts above.
The article is written in two parts. Link for original article. Link for followup.
Via Metafilter. Photo credit Marie Lee.
Pre-pot, J. ate things that weren’t food… His pica become so uncontrollable we couldn’t let him sleep with a pajama top (it would be gone by morning) or a pillow (ditto the case and the stuffing)… The worst part was watching him scream in pain on the toilet, when what went in had to come out… Almost immediately after we started the cannabis, the pica stopped. Just stopped. J. now sleeps with his organic wool-and-cotton, hypoallergenic, temptingly chewable comforter.
Next, we started seeing changes in J.’s school reports… An aggression is defined as any attempt or instance of hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person. For the past year, he’d consistently had 30 to 50 aggressions in a school day, with a one-time high of 300. The charts for June through July, by contrast, showed he was actually having days—sometimes one after another—with zero aggressions.
This post is likely to elicit strong opinions; I would encourage everyone to at least browse the original source articles rather than basing judgments only on the excerpts above.
The article is written in two parts. Link for original article. Link for followup.
Via Metafilter. Photo credit Marie Lee.
Trust a plant that has been in known use for over 4,700 years...
or
Trust a pill from a pharmaceutical company that was invented in the last 20 years.
That's no choice at all.
I'm glad that this boy is getting the help he needed in a manner that doesn't violate the law. I really think that the United States ought to seriously reconsider its laws regarding cannabis. I also really think it will be a very long time before this happens. Every success story such as this one reminds me even more how many people are ignoring a viable option of treatment because of the negative stigma placed on it due to a draconian law. Perhaps one day cannabis will be universally accepted as legitimate medicine once more, as it was a hundred years ago. I own a very old leather-bound copy of the USP-NF which lists cannabis as a useful drug for a number of conditions, and even recommends a company to purchase it from.
I'm not saying every drug used 100 years ago was valid, in fact far from it, but while most were discontinued or phased out by finding better alternatives, or through rigorous medical testing, cannabis was thrown out generally for racial and economic reasons.
BTW, I am very happy for this family.Generally, if your child has autism, you will be forced to either spend all of the money you have for treatments that do very little or nothing at all or feel horrible about not being able to afford to help your own child. Congratulations to this family!!