This week is Children’s Week at the Florida Capitol. Over 2000 children under the age of 8 are expected on Tuesday, January 28, 2020. Our own president, Ethel Rowland, on Sunday volunteered to help hang the hands that decorate the rotunda. (Check out her Facebook Live video)

The message aimed at lawmakers is “remember the children.”

The irony is not lost on Florida Cannabis Action Network leadership and members who have children. For decades, parents who used Cannabis risked losing a child to the Department of Children and Family Services. Cannabis in the home was viewed as “drug abuse.”

Remember the children…

The Florida Medical Marijuana program isn’t very friendly for children. Pediatric patients must have recommendations from two doctors, but can only have one care-giver. A parent who is also a patient buys three $75.00 State Medical Marijuana Identification Cards. Their personal card, their child’s card, and their care-giver card.

Pediatric patients can’t smoke Cannabis; it’s the law. Raw, whole flower baked into foods is an excellent way to administer Cannabis for pediatric patients. However, the law prohibits “smoke-able” Cannabis being recommended to pediatric patients, yet loose flower is only sold for “smoking.”

We understand that some people are very concerned about Cannabis and the developing brain; some studies associate youth Cannabis use with a lifetime of under-achieving. In most cases, parents who chose Cannabis as a treatment for their child are still using it as a treatment of last resort.

A lack of education about Cannabis is a public health threat. Our lawmakers hold the future of our children in their hands. We owe it to ourselves to learn more about Cannabis and pediatric diseases to combat the bad information being spread. Here are some pediatric studies from the National Institute on Health worth noting.

Cannabis and pediatric inflammatory bowel disease:
change blossoms a mile high.

“They (parents) report to us trying cannabis in multiple forms, including smoking, edibles, and CBD oil. Patients and parents tell us they feel it helps treat their IBD beyond improved coping, decreased pain, and
better appetite.”
From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5250561/

Cannabinoids for pediatric epilepsy? Up in smoke or real science?

“Consequently, there is the uncomfortable potential that a child benefiting from a vernacular “hemp-oil” product would not be permitted to receive it in the hospital, conceivably putting the child at risk in the event the vernacular substance is in fact functioning as an effective anticonvulsant.”
From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4729003/

Here at FLCAN, we remember the children: the children of the incarcerated; the children self-medicating with Cannabis; the children of patients who do not have access to Cannabis when it might be the best medicine; and those sick children who are using a pharmacy of drugs, but for whom Cannabis is being withheld through the laws or ignorance.