Pediatrics: W.A.M.M. has been documenting the use of medical marijuana for young people with multiple behavior disorders. A report on this subject will come out shortly. For now, please read the articles below regarding one of WAMM's patients.


Debbie Jeffries shows CorrespondentHarold Dow
the bag of marijuana she keeps in her freezer. (CBS)

Recipe For Trouble
48hr report on using Marijuana to treat children's behavioral disorders

Macrh 7, 2002
CBS) Debbie Jeffries of Rocklin, Calif., and her mother, Lorraine, love to cook. Lorraine has even published a cookbook, "50 Years Of Our Favorite Family Recipes."

But what they are whipping up these days isn’t in your average cookbook, reports 48 Hours correspondent Harold Dow. They’re making marijuana - medical marijuana - for Debbie’s son, Jeff.

Using marijuana as a medicine is not unusual in California. Five years ago, voters passed a law allowing patients with serious illnesses, such as AIDS and cancer, to use marijuana for pain, if a
doctor approves. But this case is unusual because the patient is 8 years old.

"Jeff has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is ADHD; oppositional defiant disorder; conduct disorder; intermittent explosive disorder; bipolar disorder - any disorder you can think of," says Debbie, a single mother.

The disorders often lead Jeff to violent, uncontrollable outbursts.

"We’ve had to call the police," Debbie says. "I have woken up to a knife in my back. He used to stab the dogs next door. The teachers were afraid of Jeffrey. He picked up a chair and threw it at a teacher."

Doctors first started Jeffrey on Ritalin at age 3 and began adding other medications over the years, as nothing seemed to stop the outbursts.

"He was a walking pharmaceutical lab," Debbie says. "It was incredible. And nothing was working."

Debbie grew desperate last May when officials issued a deadline: Get Jeff under control in 30 days, or he would be placed under the care of the county.

That led her to an Internet article on how marijuana calms the brain and to Dr. Mike Alkalay, a pediatrician who believes in the medical powers of the drug marijuana.

"This medication has been around for 5,000 years," Alkalay says. "It's basically a Chinese herbal plant that's been used in the Middle East. It's been used in India. It's a very safe medication."

Alkalay admits 8-year-old Jeff isn’t the typical patient to receive marijuana but agreed, without seeing him, to recommend Jeff take the drug.

The decision to try marijuana shocked Debbie’s parents, Ken and Lorraine.

"There was absolutely no way I was for it," says Ken, who describes himself as a conservative. Lorraine adds, "It caused quite a bit of strife in our household."

The results were immediate.

"Within a half hour," Debbie says, "I looked over at Jeffrey, and he just had this smile about him, this glow, and he said, 'Mommy, I feel happy.' And that’s the first time that he’s ever said that."

Just how the marijuana is helping Jeff is not completely clear. "His brainwaves don't connect the way ours do," Debbie says of her son. "The marijuana is allowing him, somehow. It's filling in the gap in there for him, so he is learning how to manage his anger."

But Child Protective Services had a different opinion, and they opened an investigation. Debbie says they are accusing her of being an unfit mother and putting her son at risk.

Part of the problem is that Dr. Alkalay never saw Jeff before prescribing him the marijuana. The doctor says he was comfortable with that because "I know it's a very safe medication."

Child Protective Services is taking Debbie to court where a judge could stop Debbie from giving marijuana to her son. If that happens, Debbie says she won’t be able to control him, and will lose her son to the custody of the state.

"I’m not a criminal," says Debbie. "I’m a mother who cares for her child and will do anything to help her child."

The Result

In just under an hour at a closed-session juvenile court hearing, the judge dismissed the case against Debbie.

"I can’t even express how excited I am," she says. "It's been proven that what I'm doing to Jeffrey isn't a crime."

The decision to allow a child like Jeff access to medical marijuana may have far-reaching consequences.

"It opens up a whole door for parents who have been through what I've been through," says Debbie.

Is It A Crime? You Decide - Update on the 48hr story.



Medical Pot War Engulfs Boy, 7 By Wayne Wilson (CN article snipped)

Source: United Press International July 11, 2001

He's 7 years old and afflicted with a disorder of the brain that for years has wracked his body with extreme changes in mood, energy and behavior.

And today, he's at the center of a controversy that pits a caring parent against a protective bureaucracy on the high-octane battlefield of medical marijuana.

It's a war being conducted behind closed doors because it involves a child, a boy Placer County seeks to take away from a mother who says the cannabis muffins she feeds her son have improved his life.

For more than four years, the child had been a terror at home, unmanageable at school and a challenge to doctors and nurses who had ministered to him during three psychiatric hospitalizations.

And according to a Web site published by his mother, she has tried everything to stabilize his illness, administering 19 drugs prescribed by 16 doctors over a span of four years.

When all failed, the homepage revealed, the mother turned to a home remedy approved by her son's pediatrician: muffins flavored by a pinch of marijuana.

Five weeks later, the results were in:

"My son for the first time in his life is laughing and loving life," the 30-year-old Rocklin woman wrote. "He has very little to no angry outbursts, he is compliant, is doing great in school, and actually is making friends."

The change in her son's demeanor even prompted a letter from one of his school counselors, she said on the Web site.

It read, "(Your boy's) behavior over this past five weeks has taken a dramatic turn. (He) has gone from daily multiple visits to our behavior intervention room to one brief visit last Thursday . . . a 180-degree turn."

Not everyone is enamored of the woman's approach to her son's affliction, however.

Placer County's Child Protective Services has "taken me to court," she said on the Web site, "with accusations of me abusing my son."

Authorities have filed a petition that, under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300, could result in the boy's removal from his home and placement elsewhere as a dependent of the court.

Because such proceedings are confidential under state law, neither the mother nor her attorney, Wendell Phillips, would discuss the matter Tuesday.

And county spokeswoman Anita Yoder said that the nature of the case precluded the county from commenting.

A hearing Tuesday was just one step in a series of Placer County Juvenile Court proceedings that will examine whether the boy is being harmed by the treatment. Neither side would say when the next hearing would be.

Proponents of medical marijuana have picked up on the controversy and are criticizing Placer County for overreaching in its war against Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. They suggest that the county apparently has taken the position that Proposition 215 does not apply to children.

The law permits Californians with a physician's approval to use marijuana for medical purposes.

Use of medical marijuana by children has never been studied, according to Drew Mattison, co-director of the Center for Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego.

"There are anecdotal reports, but not a body of scientific literature," he said.

According to the Web site, which was posted before Tuesday's Juvenile Court hearing, the boy's mother says he has bipolar disorder and also has been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder, impulsive disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but none of the drugs prescribed ever worked.

"I have supported doctors and government agencies attempting anything to help my son," the mother said. "The adverse reactions these medications have had on him, not to mention the unknown of what they are doing to his system, is heart-wrenching to a mother."

The Bee's Wayne Wilson can be reached at (916) 773-7387 or
wwilson@sacbee.com * Website

WAMM's Research: Strains of Cannabis Research
WAMM initiated a study in 1993 designed to address the question of differential clinical effects between Cannabis sativa and C. indica strains and hybrids, and also examining effects of inhaled and ingested routes of administration. This study is ongoing and now includes "blind" trials where the varieties used are not apparent to the participating patient.
To read the research paper go to marijuana-research.org



?Poll: Should Debbie be allowed to keep giving her 8-year-old son medical marijuana?

Marijuana and the Treatment of an 8-year-old Child with Multiple Psychiatric Diagnoses
by Debbie Jeffries
The psychiatric history of Debbie Jeffries' son suggests a complicated, multi- diagnosis developmental disorder. Mrs. Jeffries, after learning about cannabis as a medicine and deciding that, given its limited toxicity, she had little to lose in exploring the possibility that it might be helpful to her son where other, more toxic medicines had failed. The remarkable success she and her son achieved with marijuana is certain to generate controversy.

I have published a book, Jeffrey's Journey.
please email me if you are interested!
mailto: loveyourguts@attbi.com



A Determined Mother's
Battle for Medical Marijuana
For Her Son
By Debbie Jeffries and LaRayne Jeffries

BOOK REVIEW: JEFFREY'S JOURNEY
Jeffrey's Journey: A Determined Mother's Battle For Medical Marijuana For Her Son
by Debbie and LaRayne Jeffries, 80 pages, L.P. Chronicles, $9.95
"Jeffrey's Journey" is the very real and harrowing story of a young boy named Jeffrey and his inner battle with severe emotional and behavioral problems. Written by Debbie and LaRayne Jeffries - the boy's mother and grandmother - Jeffrey's tale takes him from the depths of prescription drug despair, to the high of successful cannabis-based treatment.

Mother Treats Problematic Son With Marijuana
Debbie Jeffries Writes Book About Ordeal
EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. -- An El Dorado County mother who treats her son's behavioral problems with marijuana is defending her pot prescription.

A valley mother allows her son to smoke marijuana
A northern Californian woman is being charged as an unfit mother because she gives her eight-year-old son medicinal marijuana.

LP Chronicles: Jeffrey's Journey

Google: Debbie Jeffreys (more articles)

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives

Medical Pot Leads To Child Custody Case

Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study

Pregnancy and Pot

Dr Kate can be reached by email at: galbraithe@upanet.uleth.ca.

Shakti: Cannabis & Pregnancy



Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts
Rx Marijuana
The Uses Of Marijuana, Lester Grinspoon, M.D.

"One of marijuana's greatest advantages as a medicine is its remarkable safety"

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DOCTORS AND RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
How To Obtain A Physician Referral

In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British journal Lancet (the British equivalent of New England Journal of Medicine) concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health."

The possible side effects of using cannabis, no matter how well it works or if it's after exhausting all avenues from the Pharmaceutical pushers. Jail and Foster Homes. This is your brain on fascist propaganda. To the DEAth your kid is better on white powders or suffering.
No exceptions!
DdC

CPS Watch * PDF * HTML
States are required to spend their incentive payments on Child Welfare programs. Family Preservation and Reunification services have a federal cap so the only area left in which to spend the excess of funds is on creating more terminations and adoptions. It stands to reason that states would use the money to create more adoptions so that they will be entitled to a hefty bonus check again next year. Incentive payments were supposed to move ‚"unadoptable‚" children out of foster care and into permanent homes. Yet two years after passing, the number of children in foster care has greatly increased. While adoptions have also increased, they have not
been enough to counteract the rising foster care rates. The socalled ‚"unadoptable‚" children remain in foster care while infant and toddler adoptions increase. In short, states are taking more young children from families needlessly in order to raise their adoption numbers and ‚"get paid".

Rising adoption numbers have created a false illusion of success when in reality, there are more "unadoptable‚" children in foster care today than there were two years ago, prior to the passing of this law. We‚'ve all heard about the adoption incentive payments states receive under
the Adoption and Safe Families Act for each child that is adopted out. But exactly how do they work? What must states do in order to earn these payments? And, what do states do with the
money?

In general, states earn $4,000 for each child that is adopted from foster care and an additional
$2,000 for each ‚"special needs‚" child. These pay ments are capped at $20,000,000 per state, which equals 5,000 adoptions. In order for states to be eligible to earn incentive payments, they must increase the number of adoptions each year. If adoptions for the fiscal year are less than
the average of the last three years, the state gets nothing. Further, states only receive incentive payments on the portion of adoptions that exceeds the average of the previous three years. Example: the average number of adoptions for the previous three years is 1,000; the number of adoptions for this year is 1,200; the state only receives incentive payments for 200 adoptions. In order for states to take full advantage of this gold mine, they must increase
the number of adoptions by 5,000 each year.

Getting Paid: Adoption Incentives to the States
C P S W a t c h , I n c .
P O B o x 9 7 4
B r a n s o n , M O 6 5 6 1 5
August, 1999 Volume 1, Issue 1

Cheryl Barnes of CPS Watch
Siege in North Carolina
CPS Watch has been around for quite a long time- since at least 1999. Cheryl Barnes has developed a national reputation as a Family Rights Advocate and her website http://cpswatch.com is packed full of useful information for parents in trouble with CPS.

The Jack Stratton story-In the Horror Stories at AFRA
Other Stratton Stories in the BIN



'Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible' (Excerpted)
According to the government-funded National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 800,000 million youths between 12 and 17 tried marijuana for the first time in 1991. But in 2000, according to the same survey, 1.6 million youths between 12 and 17 tried marijuana for the first time. "If arresting more people is supposed to stop kids from trying marijuana, it seems not to be working," comments Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in D.C. What's life like in our prisons for those 77,000 marijuana convicts? Let's steel our nerves and go visit the Web site http://www.spr.org, where the Los Angeles outfit "Stop Prisoner Rape" has posted the little plain-talking handbill it has prepared for young men entering our prison system, titled "For Prisoners: Advice on Avoiding HIV/AIDS." The group's handout -- targeted primarily at heterosexual men who have no desire to ever be involved in homosexual activity -- advises: "HIV/AIDS transmission during a sexual assault is a serious concern. The following are practical tips for reducing your risk. ...
Male Rape in US Prisons
Close to Home: Juveniles in Adult Jails Op-Ed by Michael Bochenek The Washington Post
Human Rights Watch has documented abominable conditions for children in detention in countries around the world. In the United States (Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland), Pakistan, Jamaica, among other countries, children are subjected to excessive force, inadequate medical and mental health care, and are provided with little or no education. Often, these children are placed in the facilities along side adults, exposing them to physical and sexual abuse.

The Economist March 28th 1992:
"Medicines often produce side effects. Sometimes they are physically unpleasant. Cannabis too has discomforting side effects, but these are not physical they are political"

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

Link between children's sleep problems and ADHD
Ritalin may alter brain's reward centre
Little known about safety of long-term Ritalin use, study warns
Stimulants for ADD among popular on black market
Study: Teens selling or giving away their Ritalin doses
Biovail files application to market ADD drug
Hyperactivity - What can you do?
Study suggests physical ills more common in attention deficit
Authorities worry Ritalin catching on as recreational drug
Hyperactive children get less blood to brain
ADD drug use more than doubled

Ritalin Abuse On the Rise in Young People



The Shifting Medical View on Marijuana by Lester Grinspoon, M.D. August 17, 2003).
The Marijuana Problem by Lester Grinspoon, M.D.
(pdf file - from the Journal of Cognitive Liberties, Volume Four, No. 2, 2003)

Rx Marijuana shared comments or observations

ADHD
Aggressive and Destructive Behavior
ADHD by Ryan P
ADHD by Stephen Lockhart
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) by L. D. K.
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder by Josh Gentry
ADHD by Erik
Treatment of Cancer, ADD, and PTSD by Patty Allen
ADHD by Anonymous

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass, August 4, 1857

T.O. health board wants grass legalized By BRAD HONYWILL
TORONTO -- Five months after banning tobacco smoking in restaurants, the city's health department is calling for the decriminalization of pot smoking.



Therapeutic Use of Cannabis

CANNABIS LUNG CLEANER AND EXPECTORANT
Cannabis is the best natural expectorant to clear the human lungs of smog, dust and the phlegm associated with tobacco use. Marijuana smoke effectively dilates the airways of the lungs, the bronchi, opening them to allow more oxygen into the lungs. It is also the best natural dilator of the tiny airways of the lungs, the bronchial tubes - making cannabis the best overall bronchial dilator for 80% of the population (the remaining 20% sometimes show minor negative reactions). (See section on asthma - a disease that closes these passages in spasms - UCLA Tashkin studies, 1969-97; U.S. Costa Rican, 1980-82; Jamaican studies 1969-74, 76.) Statistical evidence - showing up consistently as anomalies in matched populations - indicates that people who smoke tobacco cigarettes are usually better off and will live longer if they smoke cannabis moderately, too. (Jamaican, Costa Rican studies.)

Costa Rica: Cannabis is Safe!

Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study of Chronic Marijuana Use; Institute of Human Issues.
"No significant health consequences to chronic cannabis smokers"

Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study of Chronic Marijuana Use; Institute of Human Issues.
"Users in our matched-pair sample smoked marijuana in addition to as many tobacco cigarettes as did their matched non-using pairs. Yet their small airways were, if anything, a bit healthier than their matches. We must tentatively conclude either that marijuana has no harmful effect on such passages or that it actually offers some slight protection against harmful effects of tobacco smoke"

US Jamaican Study 1974
"... as a multipurpose plant, ganga is used medicinally, even by non-smokers. ....There were no indications of organic brain damage or chromosome damage among smokers and no significant clinical psychiatric, psychological or medical) differences between smokers and controls." "No impairment of physiological, sensory and perceptual performance, tests of concept formation, abstracting ability, and cognitive style, and tests of memory" "[Cannabis smoking] does not lead directly to mental or physical deterioration... Those who have consumed marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug."

The Kaiser Permanente study
"Marijuana Use and Mortality" April 1997 American Journal of Public Health". "Relatively few adverse clinical effects from the chronic use of marijuana have been documented in humans. However, the criminalization of marijuana use may itself be a health hazard, since it may expose the users to violence and criminal activity."

The Lancet, vol 352, number 9140, November 14 1998:
"We.. say that on the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill-effect on health, and that decisions to ban or legalise cannabis should be based on other considerations."

POTENT QUOTES ON CANNABIS and the LAW

MarijuanaNews.Com Quotes with Richard Cowan

Erowid Psychoactives & Families Vault : Quotations

THCseeds.com Marijuana Quotes

CANNABIS CULTURE Cannabis Quotes (and other good stuff)

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Pdx Norml Quotes About the War on Some Drug Users * Pics/more quotes