By Barry Poppins, Marijuana.Com
Cannabidiol, the 2nd most frequently found compound in cannabis known as CBD, represents marijuana in its most medicinal, therapeutic form. Since Medical Marijuana remains in its historical infancy, case studies regarding CBD (which doesn’t even get you high) remain scant-but the one’s that do exist speak volumes about the compound’s and cannabis’ healing powers.
Of late, CBD’s claim to fame-and medicine-continues to rise, and with due cause; this year alone, its success in treatingDiabetes, Breast Cancer, and Lung Cancer has been well documented by the mainstream media. Among its accolades, CBD is specifically known to successfully kill cancer cells and reduce internal inflammation-and study surrounding it remains scarce.
But the latest two case studies are perhaps the most important regarding CBD and Medical Marijuana’s nation (and world) wide legalization: two girls suffering from extreme epilepsy, one six and the other two, have been kept alive thanks to Cannabidiol.
As Marijuana goes mainstream, it’s crucial for the movement to highlight stories like these that extol CBD as Marijuana’s Sorcerer’s Stone-CBD literally has the ability to ease pain, prolong life, and make a viable medical impact on the world.
Charlotte, the Colorado-based six-year-old who suffered 25-30 seizures a day, remains the most clearcut, veritable proof of its vast power and its medicinal potential.
About 18 months ago, in the winter of 2011, Paige and Matt Figi signed a “do not resuscitate” order telling medical personnel to forgo life-saving measures for their daughter and let fate take its course.
They’d done all they could to control the seemingly endless, violent seizures that hit Charlotte 20, 40, 60 times a day. They put her on an extreme diet. They tried at least a dozen medications, many with harmful side effects. Despite some promising starts, nothing worked. And the rescue medications they were giving her to stop the seizures in fact stopped her breathing. CPR brought her back to life more than once.
After years of watching a cruel, incurable genetic disorder called Dravet Syndome rob their daughter of her basic bodily functions and send her into convulsions that caused head injuries and broken teeth, they had reached the end.
“We really thought, this is a horrible existence; she’s not going to live much longer.” Paige says. “This is not a life for her. This is torture. She is suffering all day. I’m not OK with this. She wasn’t even human anymore. She’d lie in my arms drooling, seizing, screaming and crying.”
Then, in an act of desperation, or inspiration – or maybe both – Matt called Paige from overseas, where he was working, and suggested a radical approach to Charlotte’s treatment.
“We need to try cannabis for Charlotte,” he told Paige. “We live in a compassionate state.”
Fifteen months later, the little girl with the DNR order is standing in the kitchen of their Black Forest home with her mother getting her Pull-Ups changed, cuddling in the arms of a visitor, playing with toys and strategically pushing the buttons on her “talker,” an electronic device that communicates when Charlotte can’t.
Her seizures have dropped from 1,200 a month to three, and the ones she has are shorter in duration and less severe. She’s off all the other medications with their troubling side effects.And, as one of the youngest medical marijuana patients in Colorado, her dramatic turnaround is starting to draw national attention, with a CNN report on the horizon. [Full Story: Gazette]
And she’s certainly not alone. The New Jersey State Senate just (finally, three years late) green-lit safe access for seriously ill minors, which means the two-year-old girl with identical symptoms to Charlotte can safely medicate-and continue to live.
While it’s by no means “new” news that Marijuana helps prevent and contain seizures and their symptoms, its news worth repeating, especially as it relates to children in non-Medical Marijuana states who stare death in the eye on a daily basis.
Embedded within the legalization is a Catch-22: Recreational versus Medical. If “Dabs” are the movement’s Scarlet Letter, then CBD is its Sorcerer Stone and Saving Grace. The Government can only ignore the advice of doctors, cold, hard-facts, and its nation’s sick for so long.
Cannabidiol-again, a key ingredient in Cannabis that, again doesn’t even get you high-has proven the “Marijuana as Medicine” Hypothesis to be TRUTH. Yet it somehow remains an under-researched mystery and unknown quantity to nearly everyone outside of the Medical Marijuana scene. If you ask the average Stoner what CBD is, he will look at you with a quizzical, confused face.
This MUST change: it’s high time for everyone in this country and world to discover CBD’s magical ability and start recognizing it-before more people resort to pills or, even worse: die.
CBD is Cannabis’ hidden key and secret weapon that saves lives and could finally unlock Marijuana’s prohibition: its our job to make copies of this key and show the world what’s really inside Mary Jane’s closet.
Share this post with a friend and spread the education of CBD. If you’re still confused as to what CBD is and how it works, watch this educational video:
