TED Talk on Legalizing Medical Marijuana Will Break Your Heart

Written by Christina Sarich, Natural Society, March 3, 2015

Still think that cannabis isn’t useful for healing disease? Medicinal marijuana is highlighted in this tear-jerking TED Talk where Hugh Hempel describes how marijuana helped heal his twin girls, Adi and Casey, who suffer from a rare genetic disease. But he almost dismissed it due to government sponsored propaganda that dismisses the veracity of cannabis as a healing plant.

Hempel’s children have childhood Alzheimer’s. They have suffered and continue to suffer from serious neuro-degeneration. They can’t walk or talk. They have to go to the hospital once a week to get a lumbar puncture to administer a drug that they hope will halt the neuro-degeneration – but it doesn’t help with the seizures his children have to endure on almost a daily basis.

He and his wife tried pharmaceutical drugs to deal with their children’s seizures, but they turned their girls into zombies – so he pursued a different route.

What does help with his twin girls’ seizures? Cannabis. The same plant that was used medicinally well before 2900 B.C. in China helped this man’s children overcome life-debilitating health issues. In the 1800’s, Americans were using cannabis to treat different afflictions – until it was prohibited and became part of the ‘drug war’ that has cost American tax payers millions of dollars.

The inspirational situation mirrors numerous other cases. In another case, one 6-year-old named Jayden suffered from something called Dravet syndrome—a form of epilepsy that results in frequent and painful seizures. In his short life, he has been rushed to the hospital a total of 44 times. In an effort to control the seizures, doctors had the boy on 22 different anti-seizure pills each day – which didn’t turn out to be a solution.At his wits end, and nearly suicidal, Jayden’s father turned to medical marijuana. For the first time since he was an infant, Jayden went an entire day without a seizure.

In another key case, parents of a young child suffering from untreatable seizures decided to give medical pot a chance. In the first hour of receiving her first dose, the young girl named Charlotte had no seizures. In the second hour she didn’t either. Charlotte didn’t have a seizure for seven days after her first marijuana treatment. The Figis were convinced of the benefits of medical marijuana.

Now if you’ve ever wanted to hear a personal account of how cannabis oil (CBD) has helped change a person’s life who is suffering from debilitating disease, you will want to watch this recent video.

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