Simple: recreational use just doesn’t matter. If somebody really and truly wastes their life feeding an addiction all day every day, that’s up to them, and chances are they’re already doing it. Maybe with illegal pot, maybe with legal alternatives like alcohol. Maybe with something totally unrelated like video games, internet porn, or whatever. But pot itself isn’t the problem with people like this – it’s about as addictive as caffeine. Only a handful of people will actually abuse pot to the point of it affecting their daily lives.

And heck, I’d rather see a bunch of people throwing their lives away to pot than alcohol. At least the high folks are fairly safe to be around.

Additionally, in places where cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized, use hasn’t skyrocketed. Depending on your source, you can find “proof” that use has gone up or that it’s gone down, but no studies even hint that the more 420-friendly nations have had concerning societal problems due to cannabis being more available and accepted.

So if we accept that recreational use is no big deal, then we still have one question: why not just be happy with medical cannabis laws?

Easy answers:

• The federal government is full of SHIT on this issue and won’t allow cannabis to be rescheduled, so medical laws are still at odds with the federal government – which means places like Alex’s home can cite federal law to avoid dosing a person who could truly benefit.
• Along the same lines, the government will push fake therapies on us like Marinol: a synthetic, pure THC pill which costs MORE than black-market cannabis, and lacks CBD, CBN, and other extremely beneficial cannabinoids! THC by itself is just unpleasant from what I’ve heard, and even the super-high-THC strains of cannabis still have some amount of the other cannabinoids. To put it another way, if nature offers us the whole plant, the government has no right to try and push synthetics that only have one small piece of that plant unless very clear and obvious evidence shows the other components are dangerous. (So far, the only cannabinoid anybody is actually afraid of is THC, and this plant has been with us since the dawn of man)
• Medical cannabis laws have been considered a joke by so many that some states are really cracking down – deciding who is “sick enough” to get medical cannabis. Even here in Oregon, we couldn’t have gotten Alex on the OMMP (Oregon Medical Marijuana Program) without his seizure disorder. Intense self-injurious behaviors wouldn’t be enough.
• In states where cannabis is now legal, a person in need can get a small amount of cannabis from a friend (or in CO grow their own) and try it THAT VERY DAY. We didn’t have that option – it took weeks to get an appointment, get approval from the doctor, and get a dose to try out. It’s impossible to say for sure, but we feel those weeks could have made a huge difference in terms of figuring out the right strain and dosing if we’d had better options like somebody in CO might have.
• We’ve given the government time to accept medical use, and they keep saying, “hell no”. Full legalization in CO and WA has forced a new conversation to take place, and the more states that force this conversation, the more likely kids like Alex will have a new option.

So whether it’s 2014 or 2016, if you live in a state that puts legalization on the ballot, please remember that legalizing can be of tremendous value to medical users, especially in states where medical laws are jumbled and confusing, or where patients are left with almost no guidance on the issue.

And for the skeptics: you pay for a pee test and I’ll take it. A few people somehow actually think Alex’s story is a front to get me high. It’s appalling, but I guess that’s what happens with nearly a century of propaganda against cannabis.

First, a huge thanks to everybody who has given us support. Maybe we should have set up a Facebook page a while ago (see Alex’s story on Facebook if you haven’t already), because the support there is tremendous, and it’s a bit easier to respond to folks there than on this blog. It also is much rarer for Facebook to crash compared to the server running the blog. Anyway, thanks so much – the support we’ve gotten has been HUGE.

Here are some highlights:

• We’re getting new high-CBD clones tomorrow which should make for much more effective medicine for Alex
• We’re going to be giving RSO (Rick Simpson Oil) another shot, as somebody locally is offering us a donation
• Our facebook page has nearly 2300 “likes”, and so far I believe I’ve seen only one person suggest that cannabis might have concerning side-effects
• Multiple parents in Oregon and elsewhere have asked for advice in case their child needs cannabis – people with similar situations to us, who, like us, never realized cannabis was an option

So on to Alex.

We got up at 5am on Tuesday, waited forever for surgery due to what I’ll politely call “communications issues”, and it was about 2:00pm before Alex entered surgery. We finally got Alex into the PICU around 6:00pm, and he was out of it until around 11:00pm… but from that point on he was awake and trying to smack himself all night long. A combination of factors made that night downright awful: Karen (Mom) had to go back to the hotel to care for our baby girl, the hospital didn’t have a sitter ready that night, and Alex’s group home didn’t have anybody available yet to watch over him. It ended up being up to me to stay with him all night, keeping him safe. I was there until 7:30am mostly alone, other than the night nurse who was kind enough to give me breaks now and again for food and such.

The rest of the week went a lot better. We got a full-time hospital sitter in addition to dedicated, well-rested staff from his group home, ensuring that no single person was going to be exhausted and without breaks. Alex was hating being cooped up, but he got better each day.

Friday we left so grandma could go back home. She had been with us for over a week and a half helping out with Alex’s brother, but she needed to get back home, so we had to cut our visit with Alex a bit short. Honestly, I am glad to have had a chance to rest after such a crazy week, but it’s still tough to leave the kid without his family

So tonight we go back up and spend more time with Alex. Tomorrow he should be leaving the hospital, and we should be coming back home again, but this time with the new plants I mentioned above.

Here’s hoping all goes well and when the new plants are able to be re-cloned and harvested (which is still a long ways away as I understand it), we’ll have a medicine that makes an even bigger difference to Alex!

We are trying a new product called “Dixie X Dew Drops”, which are supposed to be a pure CBD (Cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component in cannabis which appears to be responsible for pain management as well as “taming” the high given by THC) extract from hemp. We have only used it four or five times due to the difficulty giving it to Alex when he’s in a really awful mood. We haven’t noticed much when we give that to him by himself, but three times we gave him the CBD extract and his tincture. Two of those three times, Alex’s mood stabilized really fast and he had some of the best visits in recent months.

His tincture is likely high in THC and low in CBD. By itself we’ve had mixed results. But with the CBD extract, two visits that seemed to be going badly ended up great.

Unfortunately, even with the great moods, Alex still won’t get out from his wrapping without hitting himself a lot. I don’t know when he’ll get out of this phase again, but it’s just heartbreaking to watch. And there’s always the thought, “Is this the best we can do?” If his calmest moments still require him to be restrained, it’s hard to keep holding out hope.

I’ll try to keep updating, but it’s tough to stay motivated when we’ve been at this for so long with practically nothing to show for it.

Remember to vote “yes” on Measure 80, I-502, and Amendment 64. I’m certain that with unrestricted research, cannabis could help many children in Alex’s shoes. Even if it’s not the miracle we keep hoping for, it’s still helping more than other medications Alex is on.