Epileptic Child Seizure Free Thanks to Cannabis Oil

A child in Oregon who has suffered from seizures brought on by epilepsy is reported to have been seizure-free for close to nine weeks now, thanks to cannabis oil.

A week after Forrest Smelser turned eight, he was diagnosed with epilepsy, which would cause him to go into seizures, sometimes lasting upwards of 15 minutes in duration. According to the Epilepsy Foundation, any seizure lasting longer then five minutes requires immediate medical attention and may result in permanent brain damage.

Forrest’s mother Tanesha took him to the emergency room many times until the doctors prescribed Forrest with an anti-seizure drug called Trileptal. However, the medication only seemed to make things worse for Forrest. “He would scream, he would fight, he would punch himself”, said Tanesha. [source] The FDA has said these side effects are not common, but they do occur in around one in every 500 people who take the drug.

At this point, Tanesha says Forrest became suicidal, which she and her family directly attribute to the new medications. So, Tanesha and her family began to look into other medical options for Forrest.

The family began to read into the uses of medical marijuana and its benefits, and made the conscious choice to begin Forrest on a medical marijuana treatment.

After nine weeks of giving Forrest cannabidiol (CBD), the family reports that Forrest has become seizure free.

The strain of medical marijuana Forrest is taking contains mostly CBDs, the second most active component of medical marijuana, according to Medical Daily. CBDs provide anti-seizure, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects on their patient.

“Now that I’m on this medication, I feel like a normal boy”, Forrest said.

“I feel like it’s saved his life”, said Tanesha. “I know it sounds scary, and I know it sounds unconventional, but it’s working!”

This Link provides further studies by Project CBD on the effects of CBD in a medical setting.

This Link provides further information about the human Endocannabinoid system.

The Truth About Cannabis as Medicine

Truth In Media: In this feature, Ben Swann explains how the US feds are confusing the issue of medical cannabis, on one hand claiming that cannabis is not medicine while on the other hand, holding patents on medicinal cannabis.source