American Epilepsy Society's Letter On Marijuana And CBD

A letter from Michael D. Privitera MD, President of the American Epilepsy Society landed on the desks of Representative Matthew Baker and the Pennsylvania Legislature. Dr. Privitera in his letter warns of the dangers of making law on such scant evidence.

He states...

...there simply is no clinical, controlled research to support the adoption of new CBD legislation for epilepsy such as your state is considering. The anecdotal results of a few families in Colorado, shared in the media, should not be the basis for law making.

An all too common practice of pro legalization groups and lobbyists is using the sick and the infirm to push for full legalization. They are using the cries of desperate parents to further their political agenda of legalization of marijuana. In short, the marijuana industry is trying to profit off sick kids and they are misleading their parents. Let us state that CALM is in favor of any FDA approved drug.

We are however completely against the snake oil that is coming out of Colorado, the federal government should intervene here. The FDA should also be shutting this down. Children are being severely hurt and they are being made sicker. We quote from the the letter:

....the families and children moving to Colorado are receiving unregulated, highly variable artisanal preparations of cannabis oil prescribed, in most cases, by physicians with no training in pediatrics, neurology or epilepsy. As a result, the epilepsy specialists in Colorado have been at the bedside of children having severe dystonic reactions and other movement disorders, developmental regression, intractable vomiting and worsening seizures that can be so severe they have to put the child into a coma to get the seizures to stop.

Because these products are unregulated, it is impossible to know if these dangerous adverse reactions are due to the CBD or because of contaminants found in these artisanal preparations. The Colorado team has also seen families who have gone into significant debt, paying hundreds of dollars a month for oils that do not appear to work for the vast majority. For all these reasons not a single pediatric neurologist in Colorado recommends the use of artisanal cannabis preparations. Possibly of most concern is that some families are now opting out of proven treatments, such as surgery or the ketogenic diet, or newer antiseizure medications because they have put all their hope in CBD oils.

You can find the full letter from President Privitera here