AUCKLAND (Sachin Sharma): The miraculous effect of medicinal cannabis in curing her son’s epilepsy seizures has made the TV presenter Katy Thomas vouch for decriminalising the recreational use of cannabis for persons above 20.
Her son Edward, now 6, was just two when seizures started as he has a generalised nocturnal tonic colonic seizure disorder, due to which he was having uncontrollable seizures at night, and a pre-diagnosis genetic condition, as well as a raft of other health conditions.
Edward was like a ghost as he had no sleep as he would face thousands and thousands of seizures. Thomas tried different combinations of medicines for Edward but nothing worked making her anxious about her son as when a seizure goes from five minutes, to 10 to 15 minutes, then you're getting the clusters that go for an hour. It starts to look like a grim reality,” she said.
The drugs they tried had severe side-effects, including nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and behavioural impacts.
She tried the CBD (Cannabidiol) oil out of desperation as the person who had given her the oil was present at the moment Edward was having seizures. According to Thomas, Edward is now able to take sound sleep without convulsions.
Now she has become ardent supporter of legalising recreational use of cannabis. As Edward responds to certain type of CBD oil, it is being shipped from UK and Thomas has to spend $20, 000 for this.
CBD (Cannabidiol) is found in cannabis and is a separate compound to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), so has no psychoactive effect. It is the second most prevalent of the active ingredients of cannabis (marijuana).
However, experts have warned that decriminalising cannabis for recreational use may not increase the likelihood of New Zealand-made pharmaceutical-grade CBD products being created or increasing its availability.
CBD is prescribed by some doctors to some epilepsy patients but they are concerned about backdoor CBD oil and pharmaceutical grade CBD.
"When you do a prescription of those pharmaceutical-grade products, you know what is in every pill or oil, it's manufactured to the same standard. If it's non-pharmaceutical grade you can’t know that,” said an expert.
It is worth mentioning that in September general election, voters will also take part in referendum answering whether the recreational use of cannabis should become legal, based on the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.