Miracle Marijuana? Instances Where Pot May Have Helped Cure Disease

 

 Now that marijuana has been legalized in Colorado and Washington state, a growing number of doctors and patients are paying attention to stories of medical marijuana being used to help in the treatment of everything from tumors to seizures. There is no conclusive research, but these anecdotal examples open up a host of prohibitions that can and should be explored as the stigma surrounding marijuana continues to fade. Here are four of the most recent stories of so-called “marijuana miracles.”

1. Seizures

For six-year-old Jayden David, nothing was working. Not the 22 pills he took each day. Not the love and care of his parents. Not the more than 40 hospitalization he’s undergone during his short life. The California boy has a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet’s syndrome, which inflicted daily seizures on him that left him unable to eat solid food or even to walk around. 
 
This debilitating condition changed, however, one year ago when his parents began to treat their son with a liquid form of medical marijuana, which so dramatically reduced the seizures that David can now run and swim. 
 
“Instead of medical marijuana, this is miracle marijuana,” said Jason David, Jayden’s dad. 
 
Steven DeAngelo, the executive director of an Oakland medical marijuana clinic called Harborside Health Clinic, agreed with Jason David. 
 
“What I worry about are the thousands and thousands of children like Jayden who are suffering unnecessarily, who I know we could help,” he said. “The only thing separating them from help are outdated rules that need to be changed.” 
 
2. Tumors 
 
Only a few years ago, California-based Dr. William Courtney didn’t used to believe in medical marijuana as a cure. But after witnessing its effects time after time, he changed his mind. Recently, he has been treating an 8-month-old baby with a brain tumor. Because its position meant it couldn’t be operated on, the parents had two choices: harmful chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment, or an alternative course. The parents pushed to try medical marijuana before subjecting the child to radiation, administering the cannabinoid oil by rubbing it onto the baby’s pacifier. After two months, Dr. William Courtney said that the reduction in tumor size was so substantial that the parents and pediatric oncologist decided to continue with the marijuana-based treatment. 
 
The child’s being called a miracle baby,” Courtney said. “I would have to agree that this is the perfect response that we should be insisting is frontline therapy for all children before they launch off on all medications that have horrific long term side effects.” 
 
This eight-month-old isn’t the only tumor patient who has allegedly recovered after taking medical marijuana. In Montana, the father of a two-year-old son who was undergoing painful chemotherapy for his brain tumor gave his son some marijuana oil through the boy’s feeding tube. The chemotherapy had made the boy temporarily blind and too sick to eat, yet after two weeks with the oil the boy was able to eat again. 
 
In the 16 states where medical marijuana is legal, it is used to ease the side effects of painful chemotherapy for cancer patients.

more here