I was contacted by the nice people at TIME who informed me that they created a new documentary about medical marijuana and children. I haven’t had time to watch it yet due to my work schedule, but I encourage readers to check it out and leave a comment below this article with your reviews. More information about the documentary:
Today TIME releases the Red Border Film– “A Journey for Oil,”a short documentary looking at the quasi-legal, science-free world of medical marijuana for children. The film, along with an extensively reported piece by TIME’s Kate Pickert, are now on Time.com. https://time.com/pot-
Pickert writes, “About 100,000 U.S. children have intractable epilepsy—a treatment-resistant category of the disease characterized by uncontrolled seizures—and for some of their parents, medical marijuana has gained a reputation as a wonder drug. Fueled by success stories on Facebook and family blogs, these parents are acquiring marijuana through quasi-legal and illegal means, giving their children a derivative oil low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which causes psychoactive effects, but high in cannabidiol (CBD), one of the hundreds of other compounds found in the plant. And yet there is little science about the safety or efficacy of treating children with CBD.”
Amanda Reiman, manager of the marijuana law and policy unit for the Drug Policy Alliance, tells TIME, ”All of a sudden you have these parent groups, which traditionally you’d think would be in opposition to any kind of liberalization of marijuana policies, and they have become the biggest advocates in favor of access.”
Pickert also writes, “[P]arents admit they are, in effect, experimenting on their children. Some of them do so with a doctor’s help, tracking how the compound interacts with other drugs and measuring progress over time. But just as often, it seems, parents are going it alone…. Although many of the parents who spoke to TIME insisted on anonymity, none refused to be interviewed. In the absence of medical guidance or research, these parents swap tales and experiences on Facebook pages and online discussion boards, eager to share miraculous stories of how their children and families have been transformed by CBD.”
Watch the film here: https://ti.me/1uHiNjg
See the full package here: https://time.com/pot-
Red Border Films is TIME’s documentary filmmaking unit and interactive digital platform, featuring deeply reported films by TIME journalists and photojournalists.
