Family in pot ad is real; so is daughter's treatment

[slimvictor]

Amid Ohio’s intensifying campaign over legalizing marijuana, the face of Issue 3 is a green-eyed 4-year-old girl named Addyson Benton, who is learning to handle her Barbie trike.

“That’s the goal for this year, to get her to ride,” said Heather Benton, standing in the backyard of the rental house as Addyson slid into the seat, lifted her sunny face and beamed. “But it’s one thing at a time.”

Heather and Adam Benton have family, friends and a home in Butler County’s Liberty Township. Life revolved around rearing Addyson, who has myoclonic epilepsy. The disease has resisted what traditional medicine can offer. So in March, the Bentons spent their savings to become refugees, moving to Colorado simply to treat Addyson with the one thing that now gives them hope — medical marijuana.

“It’s like night and day,” Heather Benton said Tuesday, as Addyson played on the trike. “She is doing so much better now, it’s amazing. She was having 1,000 seizures a day. So far today, I’ve counted one.”

Addyson, while delayed in development, is catching up. She speaks single words more clearly and is building sentences. Her locomotion now is typical for her age. Her fine motor skills are sharpening: She repeatedly, precisely, dipped a plastic wand into a small bottle of blow-bubble liquid.

cont at
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...-pot-ad-real-so-daughters-treatment/74601672/

 

[MushroomRyder25]

At 18, immediately after entering my local DMV to exchange my youth operator's permit (license) for my adult one, I had my first ever seizure and was diagnosed with Myoclonic Epilepsy a week later.

I'd just recently started smoking pot but was pretty heavy into benzos and amps in the months leading up to it. During that year I had quite a few but I was living carelessly and doing whatever I could get my hands on.

Once I mellowed down and stuck to pot....with other things only on occasion....I got it down to pretty much once a quarter, and at 29 now it's typical for me to have just one a year. When I was first diagnosed I was told that I might outgrow it in a few years so when I first started getting one a year I figured that was the case. Then I ended up out of work for about three months and for me no work means no money means no pot. I had four confirmed seizures and, possibly, another two while sleeping during those three months.

The part that really got me was the first few weeks of going without were the hardest. I'm definitely a believer in the addictive properties of cannabis and consider myself addicted. However, I started getting used to the idea of not smoking around day 25....my first seizure was on day 28. That could be totally random but it just made me think "Well they usually say around 30 days give or take to be safe for a drug test"....I wonder if I benefitted from it that whole time.

That's all I wanted to say but I want to be clear of a few things before I post this to avoid any misinterpretations:

Epilepsy sucks and I consider myself to be one of the luckiest epileptics alive. My seizure frequency had always been pretty low compared to a lot of people. I never dealt with anything like it as a child and also had an epileptic friend growing up so I never had to go through something like that and not be able to understand what was going on like most kids with it do. I've never suffered brain damage or anything that would affect me long-term due to epilepsy. It prevents me from driving but that's all it prevents me from.
I'm in no way trying to compare my situation to this young child's or to any of the countless people who's lives, for all intents and purposes, have been stolen from them because of this condition. I've done a lot of respite with the developmentally disabled and have seen many people who are completely disabled due the brain damage they've endured while seizing.

I'm sorry for rambling but this is somewhat personal to me. I see how it's helped me and think about how MAJORLY it COULD help others and I just don't understand.

 

[slimvictor]

Cannabis is an amazing medicine.
For seizures, and other conditions as well.
For example,



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTJCMgenP9M

 

[Help?!?!]

Hell yes! Legalize it OH! Fuck the monopolies, but yes for general progress!