Missy Miller poses with her epileptic son Oliver in their home at Atlantic Beach, New York January 7, 2014. Many families with children like Oliver are moving to Colorado where Charlotte's Web, the marijuana strain without the THC hallucinogen, where it is legal. (Photo : Reuters)
The state of Colorado has become a refuge for families with children with epilepsy for two reasons: Colorado has the most liberal laws for use of marijuana, and it has opened a market for a strain called Charlotte's Web that is believed to be effective for people with severe epilepsy, the Associated Press reported.
At the beginning of the year, Colorado became the first state to allow recreational marijuana use for adults, but it medicinal marijuana has been legal since 2000, according to the AP.
The strain is high in cannabidiol, an ingredient in marijuana considered to have medical applications, and low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which causes people to get high, the AP reported. The strain is taken in liquid form, not smoked.
Charlotte's Web is named after Charlotte Figi, the first child to try the strain two years ago, according to the AP. Charlotte was 5-years-old at the time and suffered 60 seizures a day. Now, her parents say, she has none.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia allow medical use of marijuana even though the diseases for which it is allowed differ by state, the AP reported. Washington state also has legalized recreational marijuana, but the law hasn't gone into effect.
The movement began in 1996, when California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-marijuana group, according to USA Today.
Since then, he says, NORML has fielded thousands of calls from people who want to move to states with medical marijuana, USA Today reported.
"Our advice is ... if you can do it, literally get on a plane and fly west," Pierre told USA Today.
Although New Jersey is one of the states that allow medical marijuana, it does not consider PTSD a qualifying condition for its use, according to the AP.
