The medicinal cannabis panel is already failing children like my daughter | Tannine Clarry

CBD oil is being treated as the option of last resort. This is simply no good to my four-year-old and many othersBefore I took the decision to try treating my daughter Indie with medicinal cannabis she was on a trial of a “traditional” pharmaceutical drug. My four-year-old hasDravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. It was the eighth different drug that we had tried, none of which had reduced her seizures. We refer to the trial as Indie ’s “zombie phase”. For those five harrowing months, Indie spent every waking moment laid on the floor, distressed and “body-rocking”. She would have periods of insomnia lasting up to 40 hours. The stress and worry were indescribable. Our doctors insisted it was the condition causing these symptoms, not the medication. But as a family we had reached our limit. I’d been researching medicinal cannabis over a three-year period, so earlier this year we uprooted our family to Holland.Indie was treated with a particular type ofcannabis oil (CBD oil) that did not contain the psychoactive component THC. The results were striking. Her seizures reduced significantly. We had every intention of staying abroad and extending the medicinal cannabis trial to encompass cannabis oil containing small amounts of THC. Results from other families suggested that the addition of this THC offered the promise of even more dramatic reductions in seizures. But with funds running low, we were forced to return to the UK.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Cannabis Epilepsy Drugs Health Society Medical research Science Source Type: news