Because of spring break, it’s been three weeks now since I’ve enlightened your endocannabinoids with talk of everyone’s favorite controlled substance, the Schedule I drug known ‘round the world as marijuana.
How on earth did you get along without me?
A few months ago, Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford submitted a bill to the Nebraska Legislature that would create a legal exception for cannabis oil, which lacks a significant amount of THC, pot’s psychoactive ingredient, but contains CBD, which has been shown to treat severe seizure disorders when no other medications will work.
LB1102 is also known as “Will’s Law,” after Will Gillen, an 11-year-old boy who suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes him to have hundreds of seizures a week. There’s no guarantee cannabis oil would treat his disorder, but it has worked for countless others with similar conditions, and when you’re as desperate as Will’s parents, Shelley and Dominic, and you just want to see your child live a normal life, you’ll try anything.
Unfortunately, Sen. Crawford withdrew her bill, citing lack of support from epilepsy specialists in the state.
If at least one specialist practicing at a level 4 treatment center, a facility that provides the most advanced level of care for seizure disorders , had agreed to support her bill, she said she would have continued to sponsor it. Because no one agreed to do so, she withdrew it. It’s worth noting that the University of Nebraska Medical Center is the only level 4 epilepsy center in Nebraska.
I’ve been involved in this debate for a long time, as long as an 18-year-old can be involved in anything. I’ve come a long way in my views since I first discovered my friends smoked pot and then tried it for the first time myself when I was 14. I’ve argued with people on every side of this issue, and I think I’ve heard just about every argument there is, some logical and some absurd. But what I won’t ever be able to wrap my brain around is this.
It’s not like there’s any other option for this kid, right? Children with similar seizure conditions are given a cocktail of pharmaceuticals. Will takes 22 pills a day, including four seizure medications, a laxative and a medication for drooling, which is a side effect of his seizure meds. His parents said they don’t even know if they’re working. They’ve been waiting for years for something to come along that might help him, and here it is. By all accounts, there are no demonstrable side effects. It’s just an extract; it doesn’t even function like the recreational drug it’s derived from. It’s true, there haven’t been rigorous tests or clinical trials, but does that really matter when there’s so much anecdotal evidence supporting cannabis oil and when the alternative is that Will continues in his current state?
This isn’t even an issue of drugs or crime or marijuana legalization. This is about standing up for a child who has no other options and who can’t stand up for himself. There is nothing to lose, and as Sanjay Gupta said, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works. If you could hear him speak, if he could personally ask you for support for this promising new treatment, would you give it to him?
Well, Will’s condition makes him nonverbal. All he can do is hope that the people who speak on his behalf, such as his parents, his state senator and the other elected officials who are supposed to do what’s best for the people of Nebraska, will do right by him.
Will’s parents have done all they can, and so has Crawford. But the other legislators, and the physicians who should be willing to help a sick child in any way they can, have failed – unequivocally failed.
My opinions about marijuana aside, supporting cannabis oil doesn’t make you soft on crime or irresponsible. You’re not encouraging bad behavior. Cannabis oil is a medicine, not a recreational drug, and supporting it just means you have a soft spot for sick children, which any elected official with a decent set of morals should certainly have. I bet most of those legislators have children of their own, and if it were their kid suffering, they wouldn’t hesitate to try anything to help them. Are we unable to empathize? Can’t we put ourselves in the Gillens’ shoes long enough to imagine what it’s like to ask for help for your child and receive a cold shoulder in return?
I think I can, and when I do, I have trouble keeping myself together. I can’t even imagine how they feel.
Call your senator and tell him or her that you support cannabis oil, because if someone is sick, we should try anything and everything to help them.
And while you’re at it, call Nebraska NORML at 402-953-2053 and tell them you’d like to sign their petition to put medical marijuana on the ballot in Nebraska. You can read the full text of the initiative here: http://normlne.org/Norml_Nebraska/INITIATIVES.html.
It’s the right thing to do.
Zach Fulciniti is a freshman journalism major. reach him at arts@dailynebraskan.com
FULCINITI: Failure to pass cannabis oil bill wrongs those who can't speak for themselves
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