We just finished a brief interview with a local TV station. It was grueling, but mostly because I hate remembering the day we had to tear our family apart. And, of course, that pain is what makes our story so important, so there’s no reason the reporter wouldn’t want to talk about it.
Anyway, here’s hoping the story gets aired this time. The reporter put us at ease right away, asking us very informal off-the-record questions, and questioned me for a half hour or so about more in-depth Alex-related stuff. There were two “hard questions”, but I think my responses will help people understand the “why” behind our decisions.
And I was very honest about everything. I didn’t try to make cannabis out to be a miracle cure, because while we know it helps, we don’t know if it could ever bring him home, replace all of his other meds, etc. We know it’s a good option, especially for his rage, and super-especially if we can get a more CBD-rich strain. But we don’t know if it will bring his rage from a 9 to an 8 or from a 9 all the way down to a 1. I don’t like having to admit that it might only help a little, but we simply don’t know for sure. The only thing I can say for certain is that it helps at least a little bit, and gives him more happiness in an otherwise very shitty situation.
I also tried to explain why long-term complications of cannabis don’t worry me, but I think I didn’t get that out clearly enough. So if you are curious, here’s the rationale:
- Cannabis cannot kill no matter how much you take – death from even mega doses of pure THC is ridiculously rare.
- Alex’s other medications have horrible side-effects, (two included death: Lamictal and Amitriptyline) and most can cause major problems if too much is taken.
- Long-term effects on the developing brain for other meds are either unknown or known and horrible. Cannabis long-term effects being unknown isn’t scary given what he’s had to deal with, assuming we can replace meds (which we think likely if we could get a regular dose)
- Cannabis has been around for thousands of years and we still “don’t know” long-term effects? This leads me to consider the long-term dangers as either non-existent or else very mild.
We’ll see how things look in the final edit, of course (and we still don’t know if/when it’ll air), but I feel pretty good about the interview.