Pubdate: Mon, 14 Sep 2015
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Tiffany Crawford
Page: A2

PARENTS SEE VALUE IN POT FOR CHILDREN'S SEIZURES

VANCOUVER * Kim Turkington's five-year-old daughter, Ella, was so 
heavily medicated for seizures last year, she slept most of the day, 
her waking hours spent in a deep state of melancholy.

"All day long she said, 'I feel sad.' Those were the only words that 
came out of her mouth," said Turkington, who lives in Surrey, B.C., 
with her husband and two children. "She was a depressed four-year-old 
and it was terrible."

Ella, who has epilepsy and autism, has failed to respond to seven 
seizure medications.

Her parents, desperate to try something new, have done a lot of 
research about cannabis oil, which contains a low amount of the 
psychoactive drug THC but significant amounts of cannabidiol or CBD. 
CBD is believed to reduce seizures.

"Since Ella's been on the CBD oil, she's happy. Before she was 
zombie-like and now we find her personality is just so awake," said 
Turkington, a speaker at State of the Science, Law, and Access to 
Medical Marijuana: Implications for families with children with 
autism and epilepsy, held Sunday in Richmond, B.C.

Kim and her husband, Rob Turkington, had read about the numerous 
success stories - stories about children such as toddler Kyla 
Williams of Summerland, B.C., who went from 200 seizures a day to 
very few after being treated with cannabis oil.

So, working with a neurologist at BC Children's Hospital, Turkington 
began giving her daughter cannabis oil in May and has cut back Ella's 
pharmaceutical dosage.

They are giving her only a low dose of CBD oil, but already they have 
seen an improvement in Ella's health and happiness.

"The CBD oil is doing an OK job. She still has seizures multiple 
times a day. But cognitively she is more alive and that for us is a 
really big deal," Turkington said. "She sings and dances ... and we 
find that she is paying attention more."

Sunday's seminar was organized by Project Bearings, an autism 
advocacy group. Williams' grandmother, Elaine Nuessler, an outspoken 
cannabis oil advocate, was also one of the guest speakers.

Nuessler and her family founded www.medicalcannabisforsickkids.com 
and all proceeds from the seminar will go to their organization.

Turkington said Ella is having fewer, and less severe, seizures since 
starting the cannabis treatment. She has gone from having 20 to 25 
clusters a day, with five to 25 seizures per cluster, to about four 
or five clusters, Turkington said.

The problem is that CBD oil is not regulated by Health Canada and 
there have been no clinical trials done in Canada.

It can be difficult to find, and various strains can affect patients 
differently, so knowing how much to give a child is often a question 
of trial and error.

Katie Olsen, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Paediatric Society, said 
studies about treating kids' seizures with cannabis oil are still so 
new that medical professionals have yet to reach a consensus on what 
to recommend to parents who choose to give their children medical marijuana.

"We don't have a position at this time, but it will be coming in the 
near future," Olsen said. "We're looking at all the evidence to make 
a well informed recommendation."

M.J. Milloy, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of 
B.C., said while there have been case studies that show kids with 
autism showing some improvement with CBD - for example, exhibiting 
calmer behaviour - there is not enough evidence that it is a 
therapeutic option for children with autism.

However, he said there is much more evidence to show that 
cannabinoids may be helpful in treating epileptic seizures, noting a 
review this month in the New England Journal of Medicine that cites a 
study of children and young adults taking Epidiolex, a purified 
cannabis extract with less than 0.10 per cent THC.

The preliminary report has shown that among 137 patients who received 
12 weeks of treatments, the median reduction in seizures was 54.4 per cent.

Turning to the illicit market speaks to the desperation of some 
parents, and the inability of the medical system to provide access, he said.

"You can't think that a system in which parents are turning to drug 
dealers to get substances for their children is a reflection of the 
triumph of the medical system."

Rielle Capler, a PhD candidate at UBC who has studied medical 
marijuana access regulations for 15 years, said many parents may fear 
having their children taken away or losing their jobs if they give 
them cannabis as medicine.

She also said parents are having trouble finding a health-care 
practitioner who will work with them to administer and provide the 
right dosage of CBD oil.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom