U.S. crackdown on pot shops threatens a father's search for cannabidiol in hopes of halting his son's seizures from Dravet syndrome.
MODESTO
Topamax.
Depakote. Phenobarbital. The list goes on. Before Jayden David turned 5, he had tried a dozen powerful medications to tame a rare form of
epilepsy. The side effects were devastating.
There were grand mal seizures that lasted more than an hour. Hundreds of times a day, muscle twitches contorted his impish face.
"If he wasn't sleeping, he was seizing," said Jayden's father, Jason David.
Feeling helpless, David said, he contemplated suicide. He prayed. Then one day he heard about a teenager who was expelled from school for using marijuana to help control
seizures.
So began the pair's journey into California's medical cannabis culture.