Robert Celt
New Member
A push to expand the range of conditions that would make patients eligible for medical marijuana in Louisiana stalled on the Senate floor, one vote short of advancing to a House committee.
One Amite City mother is continuing her fight to gain access to the drug she believes will ease her son's suffering.
While medical marijuana is already legal in Louisiana, the state is still looking for ways to produce and dispense it. The list of people who would have access to the drug is short, but Katie Corkern wants to expand it to help her 9-year-old son Conner who has a rare brain deformity that causes him to have countless seizures a day.
"I long for the day when Conner's seizures are controlled and I can hear him call me 'Mama' again," Corkern said as she testified before the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee April 13. "The seizure that took hostage of his brain for 36 hours took his ability to eat, drink, speak and crawl. That same seizure that took his abilities, took a piece of my heart and I have yet to recover."
She said Conner has six different types of seizures a day and takes six Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.
"He was sleeping 20-22 hours out of the day because of seizure medications sedating him," she said.
Corkern wants her son to be free from seizures and has considered moving to Colorado to have access to the medical marijuana her son needs.
"We at least want to be able to try the cannabis oil for him to say that we did everything possible in order to save our son. We love Louisiana but we love our son more," she said.
Current Louisiana law includes a list of only three conditions that are eligible for medical marijuana use: glaucoma, symptoms resulting from the administration of chemotherapy and spasticquadriplegia.
Corkern and others are pleading with lawmakers to amend the law and expand the list to include cancer, HIV and AIDS, seizure disorders, epilepsy and muscle spasms that are a result of Crohn's disease or multiple sclerosis.
"We're not punishing the people that are looking to get drugs, we're punishing the people who need help and who have run out of options. These people are truly suffering and need an alternative," she said.
Corkern said she's received backlash on social media for fighting to give her child cannibas, people calling her an idiot or a liberal pothead looking for more weed, but she said she's run out of options.
"They don't understand what it's like to have a child who seizes more times than you can count in one single day, and as a mother you want to do everything possible to protect your child and you know what that's what I'm going to do," Corkern said.
Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain said under the current law, only about 2,500 patients would be allowed to use medical marijuana.
Sen. Fred Mills, author of Senate Bill 271, said he will bring the bill up for reconsideration in the coming days because several senators were absent during Tuesday's vote.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: LA: Amite City Mother Fights To Expand Medical Marijuana As Son Battles Seizures
Author: Casey Ferrand
Contact: WDSU
Photo Credit: None found
Website: WDSU
One Amite City mother is continuing her fight to gain access to the drug she believes will ease her son's suffering.
While medical marijuana is already legal in Louisiana, the state is still looking for ways to produce and dispense it. The list of people who would have access to the drug is short, but Katie Corkern wants to expand it to help her 9-year-old son Conner who has a rare brain deformity that causes him to have countless seizures a day.
"I long for the day when Conner's seizures are controlled and I can hear him call me 'Mama' again," Corkern said as she testified before the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee April 13. "The seizure that took hostage of his brain for 36 hours took his ability to eat, drink, speak and crawl. That same seizure that took his abilities, took a piece of my heart and I have yet to recover."
She said Conner has six different types of seizures a day and takes six Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.
"He was sleeping 20-22 hours out of the day because of seizure medications sedating him," she said.
Corkern wants her son to be free from seizures and has considered moving to Colorado to have access to the medical marijuana her son needs.
"We at least want to be able to try the cannabis oil for him to say that we did everything possible in order to save our son. We love Louisiana but we love our son more," she said.
Current Louisiana law includes a list of only three conditions that are eligible for medical marijuana use: glaucoma, symptoms resulting from the administration of chemotherapy and spasticquadriplegia.
Corkern and others are pleading with lawmakers to amend the law and expand the list to include cancer, HIV and AIDS, seizure disorders, epilepsy and muscle spasms that are a result of Crohn's disease or multiple sclerosis.
"We're not punishing the people that are looking to get drugs, we're punishing the people who need help and who have run out of options. These people are truly suffering and need an alternative," she said.
Corkern said she's received backlash on social media for fighting to give her child cannibas, people calling her an idiot or a liberal pothead looking for more weed, but she said she's run out of options.
"They don't understand what it's like to have a child who seizes more times than you can count in one single day, and as a mother you want to do everything possible to protect your child and you know what that's what I'm going to do," Corkern said.
Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain said under the current law, only about 2,500 patients would be allowed to use medical marijuana.
Sen. Fred Mills, author of Senate Bill 271, said he will bring the bill up for reconsideration in the coming days because several senators were absent during Tuesday's vote.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: LA: Amite City Mother Fights To Expand Medical Marijuana As Son Battles Seizures
Author: Casey Ferrand
Contact: WDSU
Photo Credit: None found
Website: WDSU
