Paradigm Shift: Court Rules 11yo Girl Can Treat Her Seizures with Cannabis—In School

in #news7 years ago

Schaumburg, IL -- In a testament as to how the world is rejecting the war on cannabis and, instead, embracing its incredible medicinal properties, an Illinois court has just ruled that an 11-year-old girl will be able to treat her seizures with cannabis -- while at school.

Nothing highlights the hypocrisy, immorality, and sheer idiocy of the drug war quite like marijuana prohibition. Here we have a medicine that kills cancer cells, saves the lives of countless epileptic children, heals broken bones, relieves pain, treats PTSD, is not dangerous, and exhibits a variety of other incredible benefits - yet the state will kill you over it. The good news is, however, that in spite of the reefer madness maniacs tightening their grip on the drug war, people are resisting and the effects are saving lives -- Ashley Surin is one of them.

When she was much younger, Ashley found herself in a battle for her life as leukemia took over. Thankfully, she won that battle but not without consequences. As a result of the chemotherapy, Ashley developed seizures.

Luckily for Ashley, however, medical marijuana helped to drastically decrease those seizures.

"We're amazed with her progress," Maureen Surin, Ashley's mother told NPR. There was a catch, however, in treating Ashley's seizures with cannabis -- she couldn't go to school -- because it was illegal.

Ashley's family wasn't going down without a fight though and this week, in a landmark ruling, she won that fight.

As NPR reports, her parents filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday against Schaumburg School District 54 and the State of Illinois, claiming that the state's ban on taking the drug at school violates the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). On Friday, a judge ruled in their favor after hearing from the school district, which reportedly had concerns that its employees may be subject to legal penalties for helping Ashley with her medications.

"What people seem to misunderstand here is that medical marijuana is a prescription like any other drug," the girl’s attorney, Steven Glink, said. "Prohibiting it in school would be the same as prohibiting other medications such as Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta."

To be clear, Ashley is not smoking joints at school. She simply wears a patch that delivers the cannabis which keeps her seizure free.

Clarifying that point, the judge in Ashley's case said, "No one's saying she wants to fire up a bong in math class," according to the Chicago Tribune.

While this ruling is certainly a victory for Ashley and all children whose lives can improve from the use of cannabis, it could be short-lived thanks to the current administration's war on this most amazing plant.

In the land of the free, citizens found in possession of a plant — that grows wild on every continent except Antarctica — can and will be kidnapped, caged or killed. In fact, in just the short time it took you to click this article and read the above paragraphs, someone was just arrested for cannabis.

According to the most recent FBI statistics available, an American citizen is kidnapped and caged for cannabis — on average — every 48 seconds.


An estimated 653,249 American citizens — who harmed no one — had their lives ruined in 2016 for possessing this plant, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Crime In the United States (CIUS) report.

“Arresting and citing over half a million people a year for a substance that is objectively safer than alcohol is a travesty,” said Morgan Fox, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “Despite a steady shift in public opinion away from marijuana prohibition and the growing number of states that are regulating marijuana like alcohol, marijuana consumers continue to be treated like criminals throughout the country. This is a shameful waste of resources and can create lifelong consequences for the people arrested.”

Arresting people for cannabis is good for business — the police state and big pharma business, that is. If we look at who's lobbying to keep cops kidnapping people for a plant, we see that it is money, and not morals, that motivates this issue and children in states where the plant is illegal, suffer as a result.

While states have moved to decriminalize this plant, the damage done by its prohibition is immense, irreversible, and nothing short of tyrannical. It is high time humanity stand up and demand an end to this brutal and murderous war on a plant.

Sort:  

🤖💬 This post has been Boosted with a 12.50 % upvote from @cannabiscurator Plugged in by @iseekush

Help Grow the Steemit Cannabis Community with Automated Cannabis Curation - Send Steem/SBD to @Cannabiscurator with a link to your 420 Steemit post in the MEMO and watch the magic happen!

Help build a Rewarding Cannabis community!

-Upvote this comment

-Follow @Cannabiscurator

-Join our Cannabis Curation Team

small_man.png Peace in Blunts Fam 🔥💨


🤖 Ai Cannabis Smoke Companion http://www.weedrobo.com

Up-voted and re-Steemed.

I have shown your Steem site to some friends at the local coffee shop.

Being a Chicagoan myself, I am pleased to see that Schaumburg, one of our suburbs, was able to make the right decision. For those who are not aware of Illinois politics, we have a bit of a corruption problem – a problem that is not limited to one party. Illinois did pass a bill in 2016 that allows the use of medical marijuana, however we have a long way to go. At the moment, the state allows its doctors to prescribe marijuana to only a handful of medical issues. I for one have insomnia, but unlike my friends who live in several other states, I am not allowed to use marijuana as a sleeping aid. Instead, my choices are a variety of synthetic drugs, many of which have proven to be highly addicting.

What is taking so long for the blue state of Illinois to get it together? It doesn’t help that we have a Republican governor (who the National review called the worst governor in America) who is “not a believer” in marijuana and is not willing to let the state conduct a “massive human experiment” by legalizing and taxing the recreational use of marijuana. According to the Chicagoist (2017), Rauner stated "I’m hearing some pretty bad stories. Now, I haven’t studied it. I think we should do a thoughtful analysis of what’s happening in these other states. I’m hearing a lot of trouble,” Rauner said. “My friends in Colorado have told me some pretty terrible things about addiction problems and behavior problems, etc. over there in Denver.”

I, however, am very skeptical of this explanation. Illinois is where crony capitalism runs rampant, and I believe that Rauner and many other Illinois politicians (both sides of the isle) are trying to secure their cronies in the limited slots available for the license to grow, sell, and distribute marijuana. Unlike Michigan, the people of Illinois will likely not have the right to grow their own plants, and simply being CONSIDERED for licensure requires thousands of dollars (I believe it was 10K but do not quote me on that). Interestingly, an Illiniosian man, Andrew James, who was a CEO of a medical marijuana company that applied for a medical marijuana-farming permit in the Kankakee area, sued the state after losing out on the bid, claiming the state failed to follow its own licensing guidelines. Unfortunately, Mr. James died unexpectedly soon before the trial. He was 51 years old. Last I heard the autopsy reports stated the cause of his death was “inconclusive”.
http://chicagoist.com/2017/03/24/gov_rauner_is_not_jazzed_about_lega.php
https://patch.com/illinois/skokie/kenilworth-man-ceo-medical-marijuana-company-suing-state-dies-unexpectedly-0

Very surprised IL hasn't already allowed the doob. Chicago makes all the decisions for the state anyway and they gotta try and outdo other progressive meccas.

Great article. Thanks for sharing it with us. It is very important that people realise that canabis is not a drug but a herb with many answers to todays ilnesses. Keep up the good work.

It's stories like this that keep us passionate about legalizing cannabis, especially as we hear more stories about how children are starting to use medical cannabis to help treat conditions like epilepsy.

The government, FDA and DEA are wrong and tyrannical in their approach towards cannabis (medical and recreational0, history will show this to be true. In fact, many truths about government cover-ups, corruption and criminal activities will be revealed over the next few years. They will lose more credibility and support, hopefully to the point where they lose power and control.

Back in my party days, I never got stoned and want to harm anyone or anything. But drunk on the other hand things tend to get quite crazy.
This is a huge step for helping kids to be able to use the medicinal purpose of cannibus. The sad thing is that most people think that they are getting loaded or high. But that is totally not true. Cannibus has been demonized for many many years and the programming in people’s minds runs pretty deep.
Good for her and good for her family. Keep fighting the good fight.