Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Sunshine Coast mum Katrina Spraggon is so desperate to get her daughter Kaitlyn the cannabis oil that stops the nine-year-old's crippling seizures that she has started making the illegal drug herself.
Ms Spraggon said she had tried everything to get Queensland Health to prescribe the drug but instead she had been told Lady Cilento Hospital would no longer treat her daughter if she continued using it and police searched her house the day Kaitlyn returned from treatment.
She said Queensland Health also refused to renew her daughter's supply of bottled oxygen – which runs out this month and she'll die without – in the latest episode of her three-year fight with the government.
A last-minute meeting with Health Minister Cameron Dick on Friday afternoon after One Nation MP Steve Dickson raised her case in Parliament secured Kaitlyn the bottled oxygen but her mother said she could not take her daughter off the illegal drug for fear she would have more seizures, which require CPR and oxygen to keep her alive.
The Ningi single mum said her daughter relied on the THC in raw cannabis oil to ease chronic pain from spinal and hip problems.
Without it, the pain triggered severe seizures.
She said that Kaitlyn had been prescribed a cocktail of strong opioids and other prescription drugs to deal with her 19 medical conditions but they left her heavily sedated.
Katrina Spraggon in her home, where she makes the cannabis oil. Pic Jamie Hanson
Since using cannabis her daughter had been alert and had been interacting with siblings and ready to return to school, Ms Spraggon said.
She told Queensland Health doctors and the police and put details on Facebook and said it was the only way to stop her daughter's seizures.
She said she desperately wanted a cannabis oil with THC prescription for her daughter so she could stop making the drug but had been stonewalled.
"The cannabis oil I'm using, it's illegal," Ms Spraggon told The Sunday Mail.
"I've been open and honest since three years that I've put my daughter on it. I haven't hidden a thing."
She said she had repeatedly tried to have a meeting with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who had posed with her daughter at Christmas parties but not scheduled a meeting.
A spokesman for Mr Dick said doctors could prescribe raw cannabis if they believed it would benefit patients but Ms Spraggon was told it was illegal to use cannabis in Queensland outside that framework.
"To date, there have been 20 applications from medical practitioners across Queensland to prescribe medicinal cannabis," he said.
But he said privacy laws stopped Queensland Health from naming those doctors.
"Ms Spraggon was advised that under Queensland's new legal framework an application for medicinal cannabis could be made by Kaitlyn's paediatric specialist if the specialist considered it could provide a clinical benefit," he said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
Author: Dan Knowles
Contact: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
Photo Credit: Jamie Hanson
Website: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
Ms Spraggon said she had tried everything to get Queensland Health to prescribe the drug but instead she had been told Lady Cilento Hospital would no longer treat her daughter if she continued using it and police searched her house the day Kaitlyn returned from treatment.
She said Queensland Health also refused to renew her daughter's supply of bottled oxygen – which runs out this month and she'll die without – in the latest episode of her three-year fight with the government.
A last-minute meeting with Health Minister Cameron Dick on Friday afternoon after One Nation MP Steve Dickson raised her case in Parliament secured Kaitlyn the bottled oxygen but her mother said she could not take her daughter off the illegal drug for fear she would have more seizures, which require CPR and oxygen to keep her alive.
The Ningi single mum said her daughter relied on the THC in raw cannabis oil to ease chronic pain from spinal and hip problems.
Without it, the pain triggered severe seizures.
She said that Kaitlyn had been prescribed a cocktail of strong opioids and other prescription drugs to deal with her 19 medical conditions but they left her heavily sedated.
Katrina Spraggon in her home, where she makes the cannabis oil. Pic Jamie Hanson
Since using cannabis her daughter had been alert and had been interacting with siblings and ready to return to school, Ms Spraggon said.
She told Queensland Health doctors and the police and put details on Facebook and said it was the only way to stop her daughter's seizures.
She said she desperately wanted a cannabis oil with THC prescription for her daughter so she could stop making the drug but had been stonewalled.
"The cannabis oil I'm using, it's illegal," Ms Spraggon told The Sunday Mail.
"I've been open and honest since three years that I've put my daughter on it. I haven't hidden a thing."
She said she had repeatedly tried to have a meeting with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who had posed with her daughter at Christmas parties but not scheduled a meeting.
A spokesman for Mr Dick said doctors could prescribe raw cannabis if they believed it would benefit patients but Ms Spraggon was told it was illegal to use cannabis in Queensland outside that framework.
"To date, there have been 20 applications from medical practitioners across Queensland to prescribe medicinal cannabis," he said.
But he said privacy laws stopped Queensland Health from naming those doctors.
"Ms Spraggon was advised that under Queensland's new legal framework an application for medicinal cannabis could be made by Kaitlyn's paediatric specialist if the specialist considered it could provide a clinical benefit," he said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
Author: Dan Knowles
Contact: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
Photo Credit: Jamie Hanson
Website: No Cookies | The Courier Mail
