Adam and Heather Benton changed their lives to move across the country in 2015 to provide their daughter, Addyson, with medical marijuana for her myoclonic seizures. From West Chester, Ohio to Castle Rock, Colorado, the Bentons were. able to provide their 3-year-old with cannabis medications that they say have greatly improved her quality of life. Doctors prescribed an oil made from a strain of marijuana that is heavy in cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-pyschoactive component of pot, and low in tetrahydrocannabinol, called THC, the chemical that produces a high.
Addyson suffers from myoclonic epilepsy, a severe neurological disorder that can trigger as many as 1,000 seizures a day. In Addyson, the disease resisted conventional treatment. From other Ohio families with children who have epilepsy, the Bentons learned that marijuana product like oils have been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of seizures.
The Ohio General Assembly has refused even to debate a medical-marijuana program — even though, in that time, most the states legalized medical use. In eight states and the District of Columbia, voters have approved recreational use as well.
In Colorado, with treatment, their daughter has gone form hundreds of seizures per day to just ten.
They’ve since moved back to Ohio.
Because of their vocal, visible advocacy, Addyson and her parents became the faces of Issue 3, the 2015 marijuana legalization ballot initiative in Ohio, and appeared in television ads with the hashtag #BringAddyHome. Voters, though, crushed Issue 3 by a margin of 2-1. The homesick Bentons worried they might never return to their native state.
Yet when Issue 3 died, the General Assembly, concerned about another ballot attempt to legalize recreational use, found a way to enact a program to permit medical marijuana. Gov. John Kasich signed the bill, and it went into effect in September.
The program is limited. Patients cannot grow marijuana or smoke it. The state is taking applications from potential growers and dispensary owners, and some advocates complain the process is moving too slowly. Medicine made from Ohio-grown marijuana probably will not be available for at least another year. (source)
The family was able to get everything they needed, doctors notes and everything, to bring their medicine from Colorado back to Ohio.
Luckily in Canada, with an ACMPR license you are legally allowed to grow your own. Be sure to contact us if you’d like help with that.
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