Monday, August 12, 2013
Marijuana Update, Number 7,567,890 in a series: The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Even though it's Monday, my favorite day of the week, I'm dragging. Even though I've already consulted with the guy who's going to paint our garage apartment, I'm dragging. Even though, I've made some requisite phone calls and taken care of some bills, I'm dragging. Even though I've done a bit of work for My Job, I'm dragging. Even though it's still summer, and I have three children about to begin three different schools, and I'm figuring out who needs what and who needs it when, I'm dragging. I just can't shake the dragging.
Have you ever seen the Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much? It's one of my favorites -- probably because it's perfectly weird and creepy, particularly given the peaches and cream casting of Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. I was always a good girl when I was younger, and even now struggle to be the good girl. If not always do what's right, then at the very least think right. Whenever I go to karaoke parties (ok, I've been to three of them), I always choose to sing that song because it's so perfectly ridiculous. I'm drawn to the perfect pairing of the creepy and the zen.
Listen to the above clip while you read the rest of this post.
Did you see the CNN special of Dr. Sonjay Gupta's last night? It was called Weed and featured the little girl Charlotte whose severe epilepsy has dramatically improved since she started using medical marijuana. I sat sort of frozen throughout the special and only teared up once or twice. My tears were, strangely, not the sorrowful kind but the angry kind. The update for Sophie is that I've been unsuccessful locating the high ratio CBD stuff in California. I'm hooked into a group of people, though, who are on a waiting list to get it when it's available. Let's hope that's soon. Last night's special stated that studies in Israel, done decades ago, showed a strong correlation between high ratio CBD and reduction in epilepsy. The forty some odd children who are taking Charlotte's Web now have ALL shown dramatic reduction in their refractory seizures.
Frankly, the whole thing gave me agita at the least and existential dread at most.
Don't get me started on why we are only learning about this in 2013. When I imagine what Sophie's life might have been like if she'd had the opportunity to try it back in the 1990s, I feel sick to my stomach.
Que sera sera.
I heard an interview with Doris Day not too long ago. She hated that song. HATED IT! And thought it totally had no business in that movie.
ReplyDeleteAnd right now, I am pretty much hating humanity and specifically our drug laws and our stupid ass puritan fucking mindset about drugs which have denied your daughter and so very many others the opportunity to have taken a MEDICINE which could have helped them.
I am raging in my belly.
I hope you can get what you need for Sophie as soon as possible and I hope it helps her.....I also hope that God kicks all those peoples butts that have made it so hard to get!( I really truly mean it!)
ReplyDeleteOh God, Elizabeth. I am wondering, wildly, if this high ratio CBD stuff can be gotten in Canada or where can it be gotten?? Please do let us know because one of us will know someone there we can ask, right? It is unfathomable to me that there is a medicine out there that could help Sophie and you can't get to it. I just want to tear my hair out. Is this worth a trip to Colorado? Does it work that way?
ReplyDeleteI am wondering with Angella where you can get it. Oregon?
ReplyDeleteYou if anyone has the right to be dragging. ;-)
Of course you are dragging, you are a mother extreme. I would be railing at the heavens and cursing god himself over this weed thing. Can it even be acquired illegally out there? You know, the old fashioned way?
ReplyDeleteI have patients that use marijuana for pain control, nausea and as an appetite stimulant. It works. The government needs to drag it's head out of it's ass and legalize marijuana. Really, that ship has sailed and it actually helps some people. Yes, it can be addictive, so can alcohol, eating, shopping, sex....
ReplyDeleteCan you grow your own? I know you can get a license in Canada to grow your own for medical marijuana.
I'm dragging on your behalf.
ReplyDeleteRead your post and went looking for places that might be enrolling for treatment studies....read there was a study at NYU looking specifically at epilepsy, but couldn't find if they were enrolling,, also a bit of a distance for you. So, then I found that Drexel University just got a five year NIH grant to follow medical marijuana patients in LA...( the researcher might have a vested interest in keeping the supply plentiful in this location.. and so will NIH...) may not be useful but thought I'd add it to the comments. Hoping a light comes out of the tunnel for both you and for Sophie.
ReplyDeleteThe War on Drugs has been a curse for so many people in so many ways. It's forced us to spend ridiculous amounts of money to jail people and keep them behind bars for ridiculous amounts of time, and it's left us closed off against legitimate medical treatments. Ugh! Ronald Reagan is STILL haunting us!
ReplyDeleteOh, and you know, I don't think I've ever seen "The Man Who Knew Too Much" -- which I will try to remedy as quickly as possible. I certainly never knew that Doris Day song was included in the film. Don't you think some studio head probably insisted on that because it was such a big hit? I bet Hitchcock hated the idea. Just a hunch.
ReplyDelete(My word verification: "OnTWeed." I am NOT kidding!)
Well this in from the Christian right (not really, I am fed up and disgusted with all political parties and think they all need to be slapped to hell)the boy who became my kids pediatrician and I smoked weed behind the church bus regularly. Believe it or not, the vast majority of us disagree with the laws.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course you're dragging! Maybe a game of catch with The Husband out in the front yard would solve everything! (Hope you know I'm kidding.)
ReplyDeleteI'm enraged that this is so damned hard. Reaching out into the mist, I found this, which probably you've found too, but I thought I'd try anyway -about a boy with Dravets helped by marijuana: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/10/health/medical-marijuana-child
ReplyDeleteIt cites this: Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana clinic in Oakland, California, helped create the original tincture Jayden took. The center still analyzes and tests the marijuana before David administers it to his son. Harborside says it helps a number of child patients, including Jayden, whose parents legally obtain the marijuana.
A shot in the dark but if by chance you don't know that place, maybe they can help? My heart is with you, Elizabeth. We're all right here with you
Gah. I just read about how they've found psylocibin (magic mushrooms) to help heal the brain's trauma in PTSD - apparently it's actually physiological damage that can be corrected. But they're being blocked from doing further experiments with it. So deeply frustrating and wrong.
ReplyDeletei heard that these strains are high in CBD and relatively low in THC but i don't know the details:
ReplyDeleteRuderalis Indica
harlequin
cheesequake
freedom baby
ac/dc
also, in our quest for the same, calvin's nurse asked the apt question "why don't you want the THC?" and we went on to discuss the mild side effects of it that might subside over time. just a thought.
xoxox