Medical marijuana for a seven year old?

[Deleted]

A seven-year-old girl suffering from leukemia is one of Oregon's youngest medical marijuana patients, with a daily dosage administered by her mother that is the equivalent of smoking up to 10 joints in 24 hours.

Her mother says she gives her daughter marijuana pills to combat the effects of chemotherapy, but her father, who lives in North Dakota, worries about the effects of the drug on her brain development.

Comstock, who works in a North Dakota oil field, pays child support to Purchase and covers Mykayla's health insurance. He said he observed strange behavior during an August visit and took Mykayla to a private lab, where technicians detected THC levels of an adult daily marijuana user.

Gladstone police contacted the girl's mother, examined Mykayla's medical marijuana paperwork, then told Comstock there was little they could do.

Comstock, who used pot in the past, said he doesn't object to people over 16 using medical marijuana. But he worries about his daughter's well-being and the potential for addiction.

'She's not terminally ill,' Comstock said. 'She is going to get over this, and with all this pot, they are going to hinder her brain growth.

[The mother] herself is an Oregon medical marijuana patient, and her boyfriend is Mykayla's grower. She is so convinced of the drug's safety that she consumed it during the pregnancy and while breastfeeding her second child.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238164/Concern-girls-medical-marijuana-usage-mother-gives-equivalent-10-joints-day.html

www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/11/medical_marijuana_for_a_child.html#incart_river_default#incart_m-rpt-2

[Formerly SK]

I don't know how I feel about this. On one hand, that seems like A LOT of pot. OTOH, what is the alternative? Heavy narcotics? What is the safety of that on a developing brain?

I'm so glad I don't have a child with leukemia.

[Deleted]

Do you know how many high powered manufactured psych drugs they give to kids? Often more than one at a time...

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2012 15:49:07 GMT -5 Formerly SK said:

I'm so glad I don't have a child with leukemia.

This.

[Deleted]

I am not a parent but if my sister or brother (10 and 9) had leukemia and needed to go thru chemo I bet you I would not think twice if the pot would help them go thru the nausea, throwing up and pain. I would be lighting up that joint like it was the last joint on this planet and like their life depended on it.

I lost a friend/classmate in middle school to leukemia; it is not a fun thing to go thru. The chemo is worse than the pot so I am not sure what the father is talking about. My aunt in Canada went thru chemo, that thing is a bitch!

Let her smoke!

[Deleted]

It is a lot LESS harmful than many of the alternatives. The US is so based in pharmaceutical drugs and the "war on drugs" that logic has left the building where it comes to weed.

[giramomma]

Give it, if it helps. I've never done pot. 10 joints a day sounds too much.

If you read the second link, the mom attributes her child's remission to the pot. The mom also had her kid on pot within two weeks of the cancer diagnosis. The mom and boyfriend are also unemployed, living off food stamps and whatever gov't assistance the kid is entitled to...And, it sounds like the kid is still on pot while not on chemo..

On my birth board, there were many moms that not only smoked during pregnancy, but were also hoping that their kids would be born on 4-20. Most of the moms that did pot while they were pregnant said it was OK because pot is a natural substance and getting high via pot was MUCH better than drinking or doing other drugs while pregnant. And, pot is OK, since successful people use it, too.

[Deleted]

I don't think pot is ok because successful people smoke it to but I know my wife cousin that pulls 200k/year as a corporate lawyer is a
Recreational spot smoker with her husband.

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2012 16:52:32 GMT -5 @goldpanninggirl said:

It is a lot LESS harmful than many of the alternatives. The US is so based in pharmaceutical drugs and the "war on drugs" that logic has left the building where it comes to weed.

Exactly! The drugs going thru her veins will do way more damage to her then the pot she is smoking.

But I guess putting poison thru your veins to beat cancer is far less taboo than smoking some pot to handle the pain/nausea/loss of appetite and all the other shit that comes with chemo.

[weltschmerz]

Most of the moms that did pot while they were pregnant said it was OK because pot is a natural substance
---------------------
"Natural" means absolutely nothing. Arsenic and hemlock are also natural.

[Deleted]

Well, any drug she takes is going to affect her. Be it sedatives, narcotics , chemotherapy and on and on. She isn't smoking it so i don't necessarily see a problem. And, if it combats her nausea, that is what it is for.

[Deleted]

With the mom consuming during pregnancy - and the boyfriend the supplier - my spidey sense is going off.

There's no studies on the effects of pot on young children. It's not regulated in the sense of knowing the dosage or the ingredients because it's such an open market.

[Deleted]

Many drugs given to children are not studied in children before being prescribed to them.

[Tiny]

Can the kid become part of a 'study' or something? She's being a guinea pig - might as well help science while she's at it.