Childhood Cancer BY BRIAN HOUCK
A topic like cannabis usually pairs well with something benign like food. Not everyone smokes but everyone has to eat, especially cannabis users. Conversations become inflammatory when the controversial topic of cannabis is combined with something deeply saddening like childhood cancer. When we ask questions like “should we give children medicinal cannabis to help ease side effects of chemotherapy?” or “can we use cannabis alone to cure our children’s cancer” debates begins to rage. An extreme case unfolded in St. Petersburg, Florida this year when the parents of a leukemia-stricken 3-year-old boy pulled the child out of chemotherapy after 10 days because his test results showed no sign of cancer cells. They were allowed to leave the hospital and went to Kentucky to get a second opinion on natural treatment options. The parents wanted to see if they could treat their son through medical marijuana, diet, and vitamins, instead of more rounds of chemicals. Legal action was taken against the child’s parents after they went to Kentucky. The Judge finally ruled that the child was to resume chemotherapy immediately, but could also explore other methods of treatment, including medical marijuana, that received doctor’s approval. The controversial case has spread across the country and started a conversation about cannabis being used to fight cancer in children and the parents’ right to choose treatment. Traditionally, medical cannabis is used during cancer treatment to help ease the side-effects associated with chemotherapy. Cannabis can help with nausea, pain, and loss of appetite that comes when the chemotherapy is working on the body. For adults with cancer, medical cannabis has become almost commonplace when recommended with cancer treatment, but it is still controversial when we talk about it being given to children. Cannabis has been given to children to treat the side effects of chemotherapy for years now, but the growing conversation, parallel to the parents’ right to choose the method of treatment, is can cannabis be seen as an equal to conventional cancer treatments? Can it be used as compliment to conventional treatments to fight cancer? Should it strictly be used to relieve the side effects of conventional treatment?
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