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??e idea of
connor
saying mama again gives me the drive to go up against anyone,? katie corkern states with confident resolve. corkern has been advocating for medical marijuana
in louisiana for the last three years. fighting for her son is nothing new. she has been doing it for nine years. ?e battle started when her son connor was just six weeks old and diagnosed with schizencephaly, a rare malformation of the brain that resulted in developmental delays, blindness, and seizures
. by 18 months, connor was taking two anticonvulsants and experiencing multiple seizures. by four years old, the corkerns had seen great progress in his speech and development. he was crawling, speaking small words, feeding himself, and playing with toys. unfortunately, this progress stopped as his seizures and medicines increased. after the age of four, connor was experiencing six different types of seizures and taking four different medications. today, at nine years old, connor takes six different anti-seizure prescriptions and consistently has 300-600 seizures a day. ?e corkerns have exhausted every avenue possible for connor, except for one that has been out of their reach: marijuana oil. because marijuana is classified as a schedule 1 drug, the corkerns, and any other family suffering from a host of illnesses, cannot access it. although louisiana has had laws in the past allowing the medical use of cannabis, the wording made them ineffective. ?at has changed with the signing of bill sb271 into law. ?is bill allows doctors to recommend the drug for medicinal use instead of prescribing the drug, so they don?t risk losing their dea license to prescribe drugs. ?e biggest victory, however, seems to be the expansion of qualifying conditions. sb 271 adds wasting syndrome, seizure disorders, epilepsy, spasticity, crohn?s disease, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis to the list of conditions that qualify the use of the drug. seizures may be somewhat alleviated with the addition of marijuana oil to prescriptions. for connor, if marijuana oil were to lessen his seizures, he could get off the anticonvulsant medicines which zap him of so much energy and movement. corkern explains their motivation, ?we are not certain if it will decrease his seizures at all or decrease them altogether, but we are willing to go out on a limb to give our son a better quality of life.? ?ey have tried 17 medicines for connor, and many of these cause a fog, ?a glaze over his eyes.? local mother lydie neumann adds, ?when conventional treatments do not work, as is the case for roughly 30 percent of people with epilepsy, it is not unreasonable to consider cannabis. bureaucratic barriers should not stand in the way of patients gaining access to potentially life-saving treatments.? ?e corkerns know of 20 families in similar situations who relocated to colorado because they simply could not stay in louisiana and wait it out. ?e corkerns have been waiting for a long time, but it seems like the wait is nearing the end. governor john bel edwards signed senate bill 180, which ?provides exemption from prosecution for anyone lawfully in possession of medical marijuana.? but growers and pharmacies are still at risk for state felonies. ?erefore, the next step in making medical marijuana accessible is establishing manufacturing and distribution systems. lsu and southern have first rights of refusal to grow the specific marijuana plant, which is low in thc and high in cbd, in their agricultural centers. ?e universities, should they accept, would grow the plant and press it into oil. ?en, 10 specific pharmacies in louisiana would be able to distribute the pills or oil. families have been told they have about 18 months until the medicine is in their hands. corkern hopes that this promise is accurate, but she says that ?knowing that it?s accessible and that there is a plan in place makes the waiting a lot easier.? neumann explains that while her daughter, amelia, is not a candidate given her seizures are controlled with a combination of medicines, the two are still heavily involved with supporting the rights of patients and families living with seizures to access the care. ?it is an important, difficult, and personal decision that should be made by a patient and family working with a healthcare team. if a patient and their healthcare professional feel that the potential benefits of medical marijuana for uncontrolled epilepsy outweigh the risks, then the families should have the legal option in louisiana,? she says. ? medical marijuana movement by joy holden, amanda miller, & madeline rathle 54 brparents.com | july 2016
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