- Christopher Smith, Publisher
Mother's Day
A story from New Zealand reminds us of the intense battles mothers of epileptic children face every day in keeping their children alive with cannabis medicine.
Katy Thomas, from Auckland, New Zealand, is in a desperate fight against headless bureaucrats to get the medicine that has kept her son alive. Thousands of dollars of legally-imported medicines were seized illegally by Customs and destroyed.
Her story is infuriatingly common among medicinal cannabis patients. These medicines must be allowed!
Here are just six of the hundreds of mothers who have battled all the odds to save their children:
(clockwise): Charlotte Caldwell and her son Billy (Northern Ireland); Janie Maedler and her daughter Rylie (Delaware); Katy Thomas and her son Eddy (New Zealand); Paige Figi and her late daughter Charlotte (Colorado); Liza Bortell and her daughter Alexis (Texas, now Colorado), and Hannah Deacon and her son Alfie Dingley (UK).
The Eddy Thomas should never have happened. New Zealand’s medical cannabis law passed in 2018. The problem is, only 2 Tilray medicines have been approved by the government. Little Eddy’s specific formulation has not been approved yet, so it was taken.
His mother said on Instagram that she has 2 choices: go to the black market, which she is more than willing to do, or beg Health Minister Andrew Little for an amnesty on behalf of her son.
Apparently, the Health Minister wasn't interested in the idea of an amnesty, and wasn't "responsible for the actions of Customs".
Sounds like what a soulless chickeshit, I mean bureaucrat, I mean the Health Minister for an entire country, would say to a terrified mother who wants to give her child cannabis. I mean save his life.
DEEP DIVE
The Thomas family is hardly the only one going through this.
· In the UK 4 months ago, Hannah Deacon was given 2 weeks-notice that her son Alfie’s medicine ‘could no longer be lawfully dispensed’. She was told to “get something else”
· Charlotte Caldwell had her son Billy’s medicine yanked from her hands at Heathrow Airport. Only a massive appeal in the media saved his life.
· Liza Bortell had to move her daughter Alexis from Texas to Colorado to get cannabis medicine. This split her family in two: the girl’s father, a wounded Navy veteran, was not able to travel.
· Janie Maedler smuggled cannabis oil from California to Delaware to save her daughter Rylie from an aggressive cancer and seizures.
THE LOOP BACK
It’s terrifying and sad that bureaucrats (not medical professionals with knowledge of cannabis) are still able to make such life and death decisions. And that mothers are still forced to make difficult choices between breaking antiquated laws and saving their children’s lives. This is an ongoing fight that involves all of us.
I will try to follow up on Eddy and his mother in the coming days.
IMAGE sources: North Texas Daily; News Hub New Zealand; issuu; Daily Entertainment News; Grass Roots America; and The Guardian