Post by Origanalist on Jul 12, 2014 11:11:55 GMT -8
Suffering in the Service of Official Lies: The Agony of Alexis Carey
Alexis Carey suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a form of epilepsy that has left the nine-year-old unable to speak or use the bathroom. She is subject to violent seizures that can last an hour or longer. No relief is provided by any of the FDA-approved medications available. When Alexis succumbs to a seizure – she sometimes endures sixty episodes a month – her parents, Michael and Clare, can do little more than act as witnesses to their daughter’s agony. Dravet-induced seizures can cause permanent brain damage, and many children thus afflicted don't reach adulthood.
If the Careys lived in Utah, Alexis would have access to cannabidiol (CBD), an orally administered oil (sometimes called “Charlotte's Web”) that has been very effective in treating Dravet's Syndrome and a number of other illnesses, including some forms of cancer. However, the family resides in Idaho, where CBD is illegal because it is derived from the evil communist demon weed called marijuana.
CBD has a very low THC content, which means that it has no psychoactive effects. But this matters not to the Gem State's noble defenders of public virtue: On February 20, 2013, the Idaho State Senate’s State Affairs Committee unanimously approved a measure resolving never to permit legalization of marijuana for any reason, and a second resolution petitioning the White House to carry out stern and strict enforcement of all federal anti-marijuana statutes. The first was later approved by the full Legislature, but the latter was voted down.
Alexis's parents have lobbied the state Legislature to enact an exception for CBD use in treatment of Dravet Syndrome. Although some legislators expressed sympathy, no tangible progress was made, which means that the family cannot expect relief until sometime next year, at best. In the meantime, Alexis’s condition will continue to deteriorate.
In desperation, Michael and Clare have considered moving to Colorado, where CBD is readily available. Rather than being forced into exile, they have contemplated the possibility of driving to Colorado and returning with a load of Charlotte's Web. Given the opportunistic ruthlessness with which Idaho State Police troopers enforce – and exploit -- the state's marijuana ban, this would very likely mean that they would be intercepted at the border and face both imprisonment and the loss of everything they own through the state-licensed larceny called “asset forfeiture.”
“Would a prosecutor even take a case like that, and say `I'm going to prosecute you for having hemp oil with 0.3 percent THC in it?'” mused Clare in an interview with BSU's Public Radio affiliate.
The living answer to that question is Monte Stiles, retired federal prosecutor and ideological architect of Idaho's draconian anti-marijuana campaign. He is precisely the kind of self-enraptured world-improver who would be willing to turn parents into felons and paupers because they seek to treat their incurably sick little girl with a substance that is banned by the State for no rational reason.
Stiles lectures a captive audience of schoolchildren in Twin Falls.
Stiles combines the destructive, dictatorial sanctimony of Savonarola with the pathological implacability of Javert. He sincerely believes himself to be the divinely commissioned tutor to the public, defender of “the children,” and scourge of the “New Barons of Pot.” In his wisdom – and who are we to challenge it? – it is necessary that Alexis and others like her suffer, rather than using treatments that would undermine the state-imposed orthodoxy that “marijuana is a crude street drug” with no beneficial uses.
continued at...http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2014/07/suffering-in-service-of-official-lies.html
Alexis Carey suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a form of epilepsy that has left the nine-year-old unable to speak or use the bathroom. She is subject to violent seizures that can last an hour or longer. No relief is provided by any of the FDA-approved medications available. When Alexis succumbs to a seizure – she sometimes endures sixty episodes a month – her parents, Michael and Clare, can do little more than act as witnesses to their daughter’s agony. Dravet-induced seizures can cause permanent brain damage, and many children thus afflicted don't reach adulthood.
If the Careys lived in Utah, Alexis would have access to cannabidiol (CBD), an orally administered oil (sometimes called “Charlotte's Web”) that has been very effective in treating Dravet's Syndrome and a number of other illnesses, including some forms of cancer. However, the family resides in Idaho, where CBD is illegal because it is derived from the evil communist demon weed called marijuana.
CBD has a very low THC content, which means that it has no psychoactive effects. But this matters not to the Gem State's noble defenders of public virtue: On February 20, 2013, the Idaho State Senate’s State Affairs Committee unanimously approved a measure resolving never to permit legalization of marijuana for any reason, and a second resolution petitioning the White House to carry out stern and strict enforcement of all federal anti-marijuana statutes. The first was later approved by the full Legislature, but the latter was voted down.
Alexis's parents have lobbied the state Legislature to enact an exception for CBD use in treatment of Dravet Syndrome. Although some legislators expressed sympathy, no tangible progress was made, which means that the family cannot expect relief until sometime next year, at best. In the meantime, Alexis’s condition will continue to deteriorate.
In desperation, Michael and Clare have considered moving to Colorado, where CBD is readily available. Rather than being forced into exile, they have contemplated the possibility of driving to Colorado and returning with a load of Charlotte's Web. Given the opportunistic ruthlessness with which Idaho State Police troopers enforce – and exploit -- the state's marijuana ban, this would very likely mean that they would be intercepted at the border and face both imprisonment and the loss of everything they own through the state-licensed larceny called “asset forfeiture.”
“Would a prosecutor even take a case like that, and say `I'm going to prosecute you for having hemp oil with 0.3 percent THC in it?'” mused Clare in an interview with BSU's Public Radio affiliate.
The living answer to that question is Monte Stiles, retired federal prosecutor and ideological architect of Idaho's draconian anti-marijuana campaign. He is precisely the kind of self-enraptured world-improver who would be willing to turn parents into felons and paupers because they seek to treat their incurably sick little girl with a substance that is banned by the State for no rational reason.
Stiles lectures a captive audience of schoolchildren in Twin Falls.
Stiles combines the destructive, dictatorial sanctimony of Savonarola with the pathological implacability of Javert. He sincerely believes himself to be the divinely commissioned tutor to the public, defender of “the children,” and scourge of the “New Barons of Pot.” In his wisdom – and who are we to challenge it? – it is necessary that Alexis and others like her suffer, rather than using treatments that would undermine the state-imposed orthodoxy that “marijuana is a crude street drug” with no beneficial uses.
continued at...http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2014/07/suffering-in-service-of-official-lies.html