http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/187755p-1818188c.html
December 5, 2001 1:02 p.m. EST
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A mother will
continue giving marijuana treatments to her mentally disturbed 8-year-old
son after a judge dismissed a petition that could have removed the child
from her home.
"I can't believe it's finally over,"
the Rocklin woman declared after a brief appearance before Judge Colleen
Nichols in Placer Superior Court Tuesday.
Although the court did not endorse
her approach to therapy, it did conclude there is no need for an order
protecting the boy from neglect or mistreatment, the woman said.
The only condition attached to the
dismissal, she said, is her agreement to seek treatment from a pediatrician
at least every six months.
Child Protective Services had stepped
in last July once it learned of the treatment, accusing her of being unfit
and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The judge allowed her to
continue the treatments while the case was being decided.
Neither the county nor an attorney
representing the mother would comment on the proceedings because such matters
are confidential under state law.
To protect the identity of the boy,
neither his name nor the name of his mother are being published.
The woman said she has been using
marijuana to treat her son's afflictions since May, when, as a last resort,
she turned away from the more conventional drugs, "none of which ever worked."
Since shortly after the boy's birth,
diagnoses offered by 16 different physicians suggest he has been suffering
from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress
disorder.
He demonstrated extreme changes in
mood, energy and behavior, began biting and hitting other children and
was literally unmanageable, his mother said.
"By the time he was 2, he'd been
in and out of well over seven or eight preschools," she said. "And by the
time he was 4, he'd been banned from all of Placer County's child-care
system."
His brain disorder on three different
occasions led to psychiatric hospitalizations, she said.
Treatment with numerous conventional
medications resulted in adverse reactions that were "heart-wrenching,"
said the mother, who stumbled upon the idea of marijuana therapy in a desperate
Internet search.
Although federal law still considers
marijuana to be an illegal substance, Proposition 215, an initiative passed
by California voters in 1996, legalized, under state law, the medical use
of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
Initially, the mother prepared the
boy's "medicine" in the form of muffins, which she fed him regularly.
The results were immediate, she said.
Her son's behavior improved markedly.
His mood swings leveled off. He developed friendships with children in
the neighborhood.
And this year he had his first ever
birthday party.
From the time of her first court
appearance in early July, the mother has been maintaining her son's treatment
with the approval of the court, she said.
The boy doesn't know he's receiving
marijuana, she said. To him, it's just medicine.
It hasn't been a cure-all, the mother
explained.
"He still has challenges. I expect
him to have bad days. But he's maintained more than he has on any other
medication," she said.
Copyright © 2001 Scripps Howard
News Service
By WAYNE WILSON, Sacramento Bee