One of the most promising aspects of the current global wave of cannabis legalization is the hope for relief it sometimes provides to the desperate parents of extremely sick children. In many cases, conventional drugs and therapies are found to be ineffective, forcing their parents or caregivers to seek alternative avenues of treatment. One of the alternative therapies frequently investigated is hemp or cannabis. Many patients have demonstrated significant and life-altering relief from special concentrates and oils derived from the cannabis plant. A slew of anecdotal reports—and an increasing volume of pre-clinical research studies and clinical investigations—has revealed children who suffer neurological disorders, including epilepsy, autism, and mitochondrial disease sometimes experience surprising levels of relief from cannabis or hemp oil.
JAGGER’S JOURNEY
THE COT TE FA MILY S TORY BY CURT ROBBINS
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PAIN
Improvements gained from the administration of such plant-based oils include relief from symptoms like seizure activity, loss of motor control, and one of the most common results of any disease, pain. Some caregivers have reported cognitive and motor coordination improvements in sick children who are given cannabis oil, including the onset of speech, basic problem solving skills, and even milestones such as the ability to feed themselves or walk. The analgesic properties of the various cannabinoids and terpenes produced by cannabis are of obvious appeal to patients and their caregivers due to the commonality of pain in such a wide variety of disease and condition profiles. One family knows the benefits of cannabinoids so well, they are fighting for legalization in the United States. Jagger Cotte is a nine-year-old boy living in Georgia who suffers from mitochondrial disease (also called
