Tampa – Author, Suzanne Beecher has a painful eye condition called B-E-B or benign essential blepharospasm and is sensitive to light.
“It’s kind of a rare disorder it’s a kind of dystonia and what it does the muscles around your eye they want to slam shut,” Susan says.
Controlling it takes thirteen botulinum toxin (Botox) shots every three weeks.
Gary Gwynn’s twenty three year old daughter Katelyn had small, petit mal seizures since birth.
“Most of her seizures are at night when she’s sleeping and she’s had anywhere between 15-20,” he says.
Pat Caudill’s military experiences left him with severe post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, “I had trouble sleeping and then my hands started shaking.”
Three very different patients – all finding relief in a once illegal and taboo treatment, medical marijuana.
Pat buys his capsules at Trulieve, the first store to open in central Florida.
“My hands are steady as a rock. Before they were very, very shaky. I can write. I can eat soup,” he says.
Dermatologist, Dr. Kathy Anderson is Pat’s physician, while she believes medical marijuana is changing lives but admits not everyone’s on board.
It’s not a prescription or an over the counter drug. Dr. Anderson currently recommends cannabis to about 50 patients. For many it’s delivered right to their door. First they must qualify for compassionate use in the State of Florida.
“The majority of my patients are cancer patients in different stages of cancer they have multiple cancers, going through chemo and the cbd is helping them feel better while they’re undergoing chemotherapy,” she explains.
After establishing with a registered physician, and with a second independent concurring doctor, patients with terminal illnesses can get two kinds of medical cannabis.
One contains “significant” levels of t-h-c, the chemical associated with the marijuana high. Others, with certain seizure disorders or severe muscle spasm, are restricted to C-B-D’s, or cannabidiols, a strain of marijuana containing less than one percent T-H-C. But the marijuana you’ll find at Florida dispensaries can only be used in oil or vapor form. It cannot be smoked.
Three months after starting the medication, Katelyn’s seeing a change.
She says she’s no longer having seizures. She is now weaning off one of her prescription anti-seizure medications.
“The third day when i took my prescription it was amazing about two hours after I took the oil it was like a curtain drew open and something in my brain went like this….oh my gosh it made me kind of weepy,” Suzanne explains.
She’s now able to spend more time outside in daylight.
“The cannabis oil oh it just relaxes me, it calms me down, so I’m able to do a ot more. I’m able to live a more normal life,” she smiles.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical Marijuana And Ammendment 2 Explained
Author: Dr. Jo Giovinco
Contact: news@nullwtvt.com
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