Mothers grow cannabis to help sick children

(18 Jan 2017) LEAD IN:
A group of Argentine mothers is illegally growing cannabis at home to give their children who suffer diseases such as epilepsy and autism.
The mothers say the cannabis radically changes the quality of life of the children in a way that traditional medicine is unable to do.

STORY-LINE:
Valeria Salech is considered a criminal under the eyes of the law.
Aware of it and in spite of it, she continues to grow several marijuana plants at home in order to make oil that she will later give to her autistic child.
Salech is the president of a group called Mama Cultiva Argentina (Mum Cultivates). While official health organisations in Argentina go back and forth on the topic of medical cannabis, this mother and hundreds more like her are already taking action for their children, who suffer diseases such as autism, epilepsy and cancer.
In Argentina, like in most of the world, cultivating and selling marijuana is illegal and punishable with up to 15 years in jail.
However, Salech is so confident about the benefits of medicinal cannabis that she describes Mama Cultiva as a "public health network".
"Mum Cultivates is my life. It's everything, it's everything. It's everything because it's a public health network. We did what the state cannot do for us - that is to cultivate much to have for all of us all the time."
Salech's 10-year-old son Emiliano started suffering convulsions while he was still in the womb.
The day he was born, Emiliano had 15 seizures and he was finally diagnosed with autism at the age of three.
As the seizures kept increasing, up to 200 a day, the boy started taking a daily medication cocktail of more than 30 pills to keep them under control.
Over nine years, the family would meet dozens of doctors with different opinions and indications for Emiliano´s health.
Medical treatment had stopped the seizures and aggressive conducts, but also left Emiliano without the ability to smile or interact with other people.
The family got used to feeding and dressing Emiliano as well as changing him every morning because of persistent bed wetting.
But a year ago Emiliano's life changed radically.
Far from keeping him more isolated, one drop of cannabis oil in the morning and one at night is, according to his mother, the right dose that allows this child to connect with the rest of the world.
Emiliano now eats alone, looks people in the eye and smiles. He gives hugs, follows his mother when she speaks and is seizure-free.
It was in December 2015 that Valeria first decided to give her child cannabis oil.
"All the mothers remember that first day when we gave the oil to our children because the change occurred, in most cases, in a matter of hours and you go from having a child closed in himself, swaying and looking at nothing to having a child that looks at you and smiles and you just can not believe it. It is the best feeling in the world. It was ten years that I waited for that moment. That moment that he laughs at something that he watches on the TV, that he shares with you the laughter, that he looks at you as saying ´look how funny, mum´. It's all new, all new sensations. It's like watching a 24-hour premiere movie."
Because of the lack of formal information, it was not doctors', but the experience of other mothers that enabled different families to find the correct dose for their children.
There is almost no national scientific research in Argentina regarding the effects of medical cannabis. Argentine doctors who consider using it have to count on international scientific papers.
Until then, she says mothers will keep cultivating illegally

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