Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot

[Better Believe It]

Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot
He has autism and terrible pain. Marijuana is taming his demons
By Marie Myung-Ok Lee
November 28, 2009

Last spring, I wrote about applying for a medical marijuana license for my autistic, allergic 9-year-old son, J., in hopes of soothing his gut pain and anxiety, the roots of the behavioral demons that caused him to lash out at others and himself. After reading studies of how cannabis can ease pain and worry, and in consultation with his doctor, we decided to give it a try. A month into daily cannabis tea and mj-oil cookies (my husband discovered his inner baker), I reported, we both felt that J. seemed happier. But it was hard to tell. He'd have a good morning, then at dinner he'd throw his food. Still, we did notice that when he came home from school with stomach pain (he wasn't getting any supplemental cannabis there), he'd run to the kitchen and demand his tea and cookie. As if he knew this was the stuff that dulled the hellish gut pangs.

How is J. doing now, four months into our cannabis experiment? Well, one day recently, he came home from school, and I noticed something really different: He had a whole shirt on.

Pre-pot, J. ate things that weren't food. There's a name for this: pica. (Pregnant women are known to pica on chalk and laundry starch.) J. chewed the collar of his T-shirts while stealthily deconstructing them from the bottom up, teasing apart and then swallowing the threads. By the time I picked him up from the bus stop after school, the front half of his shirt was gone. His pica become so uncontrollable we couldn't let him sleep with a pajama top (it would be gone by morning) or a pillow (ditto the case and the stuffing). An antique family quilt was reduced to fabric strips, and he even managed to eat holes in a fleece blanket -- so much for his organic diet. I started dressing him only in organic cotton shirts, but we couldn't support the cost of a new one every day. The worst part was watching him scream in pain on the toilet, when what went in had to come out. I had nightmares about long threads knotting in digestive organs. (TMI? Welcome to our life!)

Almost immediately after we started the cannabis, the pica stopped. Just stopped. J. now sleeps with his organic wool-and-cotton, hypoallergenic, temptingly chewable comforter. He pulls it up to his chin at night and declares, "I'm cozy!"

Next, we started seeing changes in J.'s school reports. His curriculum is based on a therapy called Applied Behavioral Analysis, which involves, as the name implies, meticulous analysis of data. At one parent meeting in August (J. is on an extended school year), his teacher excitedly presented his June-July "aggression" chart. An aggression is defined as any attempt or instance of hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person. For the past year, he'd consistently had 30 to 50 aggressions in a school day, with a one-time high of 300. The charts for June through July, by contrast, showed he was actually having days -- sometimes one after another -- with zero aggressions.

Please read the full article at:

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/bigger-picture/articledoublex.aspx?cp-documentid=21992648>1=32001

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We are overdue for formal controlled studies on pot's effects.

Anecdotal stories like this one are wonderful, but they need to be backed up with repeatable, verifiable studies, preferably double-blind.

Obviously something very good is going on here, and how glad I am to hear it!

We are also overdue to get away from the "reefer madness" of past days.

K&R

[crim son]

3. Well said, CalPeg.

Agreed.

[rurallib]

9. Absolutely. But scared politicians will not let that happen

If such a study were to commence, could you imagine the holler that the Wingers would put up? Could you imagine anyone but Dennis Kucinich and Alan Grayson standing up to them?
ETA - remember the wingers all the major media - how could a rational discussion on Marijuana ever take place

[TheBigotBasher]

16. However they allow speed

aka ritalin to be fed to kids without regard to some very disastrous consequences it has. At least some kids know how to profit from the side effects - sell it to the older ones.

[chill_wind]

2. Very interesting. K & R.

[lightningandsnow]

4. I'm glad it's helping with his pain, but....

I do worry about the future ramifications of keeping a kid perpetually stoned to make him easier to deal with.

I definitely think there need to be more studies on this.

[tavalon]

18. The amount of pot being given doesn't cause the kid to be stoned

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I'm reminded of a Pink Floyd concert in 1986-87

It was the at the football stadium that the Badgers play at in Madison, which had never had a rock concert before (or if it did, there was only one - this was a new thing for whatever that stadium is called).

There was an uproar amongst the governmental types and other nitwits, fearing that "Oh my God, it's a rock concert, they're gonna destroy the place!"

I was listening to the local rock radio station, WIBA - back when it didn't suck donkeyballs - and the DJ was talking about the uproar and he said something like, "Oh, come on - it's Pink Floyd! That audience is gonna be stoned. The only trouble they're gonna have with them is that after the show they might be moving too slow..."

So true!

Marijauna - the great mellower.

People who are on only MJ are mellow, calm, decent people.

I'm not surprised it's a great mellower for the boy in the article. Could be a whole new field of medical helping; at least, as long as he isn't getting so much pumped into him that he can't think or do his work. Doesn't sound like he is, but one likes to make sure. I also remember the story of a 4th-grade teacher I know who found a wine cooler in one of his kid's lunches - he asked the kid about it, and the kid said, "My parents give me one of these at night to get me to sleep". Clearly, that's NOT an appropriate use of medicinals.

But then again, if the issue at hand is spending your life slightly stoned and maybe not achieving a whole lot, or spending every day eating your shirt and shitting in pain and achieving a shitload less, then I opt for the non-shirt-eating option.

There's really no reason for it to be illegal, except that the privatized prison system (Thanks, Republicans!) would lose a lot of money.

[juno jones]

20. WIBA!

OMG, back when it was AOR.
Best station ever. Once upon a time.


:hi:

[rantormusing]

6. Good for them

Pica is hell to deal with depending on the level of mental disability. I'm floored that pot alleviated that.

My heart and prays goes out to these folk, may other worldly energy protect and keep them safe.

[UndertheOcean]

7. Cool story . Alas a single case cannot be generalized

I have my anecdotal story of a high functioning Autistic college friend who went totally bezerk on pot the few times he tried it.

[Odin2005]

14. And that's why this H-F autistic won't try it.

Especially because I take Ritalin and Paxil, don't want interactions, and we often have odd reactions to psychoactive substances.

[Fumesucker]

8. You didn't get me this time..

That same article was posted on GD a few weeks back and I was a bit taken in by the title..

Not complaining mind you, it bears repeating since I know not everyone saw it, not everyone ever does.

Pot does tend to mellow out most people although I have run into a couple it tended to make hyper and talkative.

[midnight]

10. Relieved to read that this young child has something that works for him.

This amazing plant must be more fundamental to medical treatments than is being acknowledged. Let's get moving by bringing this into the medical treatment of those with pain and other issues. K&R.

[Deja Q]

15. Like with the drugs in adderall, it can be done - controlled and legally.

And put the drug DEALERS where they damn well belong, unlike their users: In the gutter and dying like the true wastrels they are.

[Tutankhamun]

11. I'm really glad it's so easy to get medical mj in CA,

and I'm glad other states are following suit. In a little less than a year, legal marijuana (non-medicinal) for adults will be on the ballot in CA. I'm certain it will pass unless there's some big money Mormon style (as in the Mormon church's anti-gay marriage crusade) media blitz. Even with a big anti-marijuana push from whatever idiot group(s) it will be hard to stop legalization in CA.

[Odin2005]

12. This autistic gives a K&R

:hi:

[Xicano]

13. Here's a good documentary which includes....

...a young boy who's mother has to give him pot because nothing else works to stop his epileptic seizures.

http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1270.html

[Confusious]

17. I don't really think it helps with his autism

It probably just sedates him, though studies would be nice. But that's my guess.

My hyperactive friends had the same reaction.

[Odin2005]

23. So What? it helps him cope with the uncaring Neurotypical world.

If Neuroptypical society accommodated our sensory sensitivities and tolerated our issues with Neurotypical social interaction my Ritalin and Paxil would be unnecessary.

[Confusious]

24. Is that the PC name for it?

Neurotypical? You got the wrong person here. I have just as many problems and medications. If I lived in the 50's, I'd be in the psych ward.

But society has a right to ask people act a certain way, within limits, for the benefit of us all.

[Book Lover]

27. PC? No, it's the medically accurate name for it (nm)

[Book Lover]

28. And a guess it is

If your point is that cannabis doesn't cure his autism, then yes, I'd agree. And so what? If taking small, non-stoney amounts of cannabis means that the nagative manifistations of this child's condition (like the pica) are mitigated, then I'd call this a success. Maybe not for my autistic child, but maybe for this one.

[Confusious]

29. That was my point.............

[undergroundpanther]

19. I had hellish gut pain

growing up..every night it came and tormented me,I was given Chloral Hydrate.I think pot would have been much better on my body.I think the pain was from all the traumas I faced day in day out that I couldn't talk about.

[cynatnite]

21. I know I wouldn't have the guts to experiment on my autistic grandson like this...

All I can say is that this does prove that more studies need to be done.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

22. 300 instances of assault in one day. How is the kid still in school?

I can't imagine the parents of the other children involved are happy.

[lawrencefox]

25. none of this suprises me

most of general public has been brainwashed that "weed is bad" for the last 30-70 years, give me a break we know it works in seizure kids, helps junkies detox off smack, helps really sick people eat again, helps chronic drunks ween off booze and it helps republicans stay in power.


tune in
come out
live green

[onehandle]

26. Medical marijuana by prescription for a health issue. nt

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

30. Great to hear this

[Geek_Girl]

31. I really do believe Cannabis may have many medicinal qualities

I think Hemp Oil also is great for MS. My mother has MS and I think she has benefited from taken Hemp oil but doesn't take it much anymore do to the stigma associated with it.


More should be done to detach the stigma of using cannabis medicinally.

[Grassy Knoll]

32. K & R n/t.

[Autonomy]

33. Who'da thunk it?

But MJ might end up being the closest thing to a wonder drug out there -- some of the wonder being why we ever allowed it to be so demonized.