Published: 7:31AM Sunday August 03, 2014 Source: Sunday
A kiwi family has been divided in a bid to give their six year old daughter medical marijuana in order to combat her epilepsy.
Jade Guest can’t walk, talk or feed herself and is completely dependent on American-born mother, Jessika.
“She is six but she is probably the mind of a six month old” Jessika said. “She has seizures. A lot of them about thirty a day”
Conventional drugs are not working for Jade and have brought significant side effects.
“It’s probably done some damage inside to her kidneys and liver, and her stomach lining for sure.” Jessika said. “As addictive as heroin and you can have even worse side effects trying to take your child off of them”
International evidence suggests that one type of marijuana called Charlotte’s Web might be effective for Jade.
However this type of marijuana is not legal here.
Advertisement
“Jade is becoming a marijuana refugee because she is a New Zealand citizen and she can’t get cannabis oil for her seizures in New Zealand”.
And because of this Jade’s parents have had to make a difficult decision to split the family.
Jade’s father, Brendan, is staying behind in New Zealand to continue working as a truck driver.
“It’s gonna be tough. But you know, good things sometimes are worth waiting for and I think this is gonna be a good thing for Jade and hopefully other bunch of Kiwi kids as well.”
The Government has so far refused to approve Charlotte’s Web, the marijuana Jade will be taking in America.
SUNDAY charts the incredible transformation of the first NZ child to be given medical marijuana and why Jade’s family are being driven apart to get it at 7pm tonight.
Copyright © 2014, Television New Zealand Limited. Breaking and Daily News, Sport & Weather | TV ONE, TV2 | Ondemand
Family forced apart over need for marijuana
No comments:
Post a Comment