cannabisnews.com: Mom Keeps Son On Marijuana Regimen





Mom Keeps Son On Marijuana Regimen
Posted by FoM on December 05, 2001 at 11:40:57 PT
By Wayne Wilson -- Bee Staff Writer
Source: Sacramento Bee 
Marijuana treatments prescribed for an 8-year-old Rocklin boy with a mental disorder will continue, his mother said Tuesday after a judge dismissed a petition that could have removed the child from her home."I can't believe it's finally over," the woman declared after a brief appearance before Judge Colleen Nichols in Placer Superior Court. Although the court did not endorse her approach to therapy, it did conclude there is no need for an order protecting the boy from neglect or mistreatment, the woman said.
The only condition attached to the dismissal, she said, is her agreement to seek treatment from a pediatrician at least every six months.Child Protective Services had stepped in last July once it learned of the treatment, accusing her of being unfit and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The judge allowed her to continue the treatments while the case was being decided.Neither the county nor Wendell Peters, an attorney representing the mother, would comment on the proceedings because such matters are confidential under state law.But Peters said he was pleased with the result. "I'm happy that this mother and her child can get on with their lives," he said.To protect the identity of the boy, neither his name nor the names of his mother or grandparents will be used by The Bee.The woman said she has been using marijuana to treat her son's afflictions since May, when, as a last resort, she turned away from the more conventional drugs, "none of which ever worked."Since shortly after the boy's birth, diagnoses offered by 16 different physicians suggest he has been suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder."When he was 9 months old, I knew we had a problem. I just didn't know what it was," his mother explained.He demonstrated extreme changes in mood, energy and behavior, began biting and hitting other children and was literally unmanageable, she said."By the time he was 2, he'd been in and out of well over seven or eight preschools," she said. "And by the time he was 4, he'd been banned from all of Placer County's child-care system."His brain disorder on three different occasions led to psychiatric hospitalizations, she said.Ritalin was the drug of choice in the beginning, the mother said, but when that seemed to worsen his condition, the doctors switched to others: Adderall, Carbamazepine, Clonazepam, Clonidine, Desmopressin, Depakote, Dexedrine, Guanfacine, Imipramine, Mellaril, Methylphenidate, Neurontin, Risperdal, Seroquel, Tennate, Thioridazine, Zoloft and Zyprexa."The adverse reactions these medications had on him, not to mention the unknown of what they were doing to his system, were heart-wrenching," the mother said.The boy's grandmother, who attended Tuesday's hearing with her daughter, said, "This poor little guy has been so overmedicated at times. At one point, he reminded me of a dog we once had who just staggered around and drooled with distemper."Turning in desperation to the Internet, the mother stumbled on the idea of marijuana therapy, and began making inquiries among the many doctors she'd consulted.One pediatrician in Oakland suggested that she give it a try.Although federal law still considers marijuana to be an illegal substance, Proposition 215, an initiative passed by California voters in 1996, legalized, under state law, the medical use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation."To tell you the truth, we were very much against it," the boy's grandmother said. "We didn't know anything about marijuana, had never seen it or smelled it. We thought it was just an illegal drug."But now we know the medicinal effect of it and I've seen the positive results," she added.Initially, the mother prepared the boy's "medicine" in the form of muffins, which she fed him regularly.The results were immediate, she said.Her son's behavior improved markedly. His mood swings leveled off. He developed friendships with children in the neighborhood.And this year he had his first ever birthday party.From the time of her first court appearance in early July, the mother has been maintaining her son's treatment with the approval of the court, she said.It was interrupted just once, for a tonsillectomy, and has evolved over time, his mother said.The pot is obtained by prescription from a 100-acre medical marijuana farm in Santa Cruz, she explained, and is ground in a coffee grinder, cooked with butter and a little water in a skillet and dried in an oven before being stuffed into capsules."It's not an easy process," she said.The boy doesn't know he's receiving marijuana, she said. To him, it's just medicine.It hasn't been a cure-all, the mother explained."He still has challenges. I expect him to have bad days. But he's maintained more than he has on any other medication," she said.She said she shares a special phrase with her son, "Love your guts," which tells him that "even when he's bad, I still love all of him. Even the icky stuff."Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)Author: Wayne Wilson, Bee Staff Writer Published: December 5, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.comWebsite: http://www.sacbee.com/Related Article & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Medical Pot War Engulfs Boy, 7http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10273.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by i420 on December 06, 2001 at 04:40:33 PT
At last...
we ahve some sense in our court system. Freedom will prevail.... the truth cannot be ignored.
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Comment #4 posted by dddd on December 06, 2001 at 04:36:11 PT
"Disorders"
....Although many mental and emotional disorders are indeed legitimate,,,,I find many of them to be kinda silly,and absurd.....like stubbing your toe,and being diagnosed with "Podiatic Appendage Trauma",,,or bumping your head,causing "Cranial Impact Disturbance Syndrome"........
..My favorites from this article is," oppositional defiant disorder",,(spoiled,or rebellious),,, "obsessive-compulsive disorder",(spoiled,hedonisticly inclined),"post-traumatic stress disorder"(part of life.Everyone suffers from this disorder in varying degrees.Being born is traumatic,,so is growing up,and getting old ,,,,not to mention dying could be traumatic,but unfortunately,no one can say for sure....being afraid to die could be quite stressful.)....dddd.
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on December 06, 2001 at 03:44:22 PT
How nice to see common sense prevail
I wonder if this will get written up in women's magazines and leak into the mainstream disguised as a scandal?
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Comment #2 posted by CongressmanSuet on December 05, 2001 at 18:49:55 PT
 Oh, Rainbow, Im sure your right....
   and bad times are a commin for this poor family, but there is a upside to this incident. From what I can remember reading here and there, I dont recall Cannabis being successfully used in the treatment of adolescent ADD[ if it really even exists] or in ANY way being used as an[ successful, at that] adjunctive treatment for pediatric brain disorders. This is some great stuff. Another malady successfully treated with Cannabis therapy. From asthma relief[you have to have asthma to really understand this] to possible tumor regression, with all the hundreds of different uses, ALL positive in nature, how this travesty of prohibition has continued for as long as it has is an almost mystical question...does somebody up there hate us?
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Comment #1 posted by Rainbow on December 05, 2001 at 17:52:18 PT
Until
Right and the DEA(th) are going to let this go without a fight? Where is that 100 acre farm, they will be toast soon. Probably mentioned on purpose so the DEA(th) would go after it.
I am afraid that this lady and her son are not out of the woods. The DEA(th) is going to swoop in and put here son in a hospital and her in jail. They will probably feed the kid morphine till 18 then let him do some anti-social crime and look him in solitary confinement.
Sorry for the poor attitude but our gov't is vindictive and this blatant show of disregard is bound get noticed and rewarded with terror.
Hope I am wrong, but....
Cheers
Rainbow
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