Let’s talk about medical marijuana for a moment.
As soon as the word “marijuana” is introduced, people automatically think of users being “stoned,” or they think of the fabled hippie communes that were part of popular culture in the 1960s.
They seem deaf to the word, “medical.” It’s marijuana, it’s mostly illegal in the United States, and the majority of people perceive it as a baaad plant.
Ok, now let’s start again. I want to talk about medical marijuana.
These particular plants are grown specifically for medical use and not to put the user into LaLa Land. Growers extract oils to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, which does not cause a psychoactive reaction. Instead, there is (pardon the pun, which is totally intended) a growing body of evidence showing CBD can relieve cancer pain and help control seizures in patients with epilepsy.
One little boy who is benefiting from legalized CBD suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy, and at one point, was having upward of 500 seizures a month.
They ranged from mild to life-threatening, and traditional medications weren’t helping. His parents broached the subject of medical marijuana with the boy’s doctor who encouraged them to research it on their own because he wasn’t willing to write a prescription. They found a grower’s association that was willing to grow various strains of marijuana to find a CBD oil that would most benefit him, and it seems to be working.
Marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for more than 1,000 years, and more and more doctors and patients in the mainstream are recognizing its promise.
