Fighting for Access of THCA

When people think about children who use
CBD oil to treat seizures, very young children who haven’t yet developed proper
speech or motor skills often come to mind. However, debilitating seizure
conditions affect all ages and levels of development, as Beth Collins and her
daughter Jennifer learned the hard way.

Jennifer Collins, who is currently 15
years of age, suffers from Jeavon’s Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. She was
diagnosed in 2008 and had her first grand mal seizure in 2011. The condition
was fairly mild and under control for a while, but the onset of puberty made it
much, much worse.

“She had side effects, and most of the
medications did not control her seizures,” Beth Collins, Jennifer’s mother,
told CULTURE. “We found medication to
control the grand mal seizures, but she was still having the small ones, and
the side effects included suicidal thoughts, rage, and self-harm, to the point
where we had to call 911 to get help to subdue her on a few separate
occasions.” Before the onset of these more severe seizures and the use of the
medication, Beth reports that Jennifer was extremely calm and sweet, as well as
a straight-A student in school. The medication she was on changed her
personality entirely, and it made her completely miserable.

Desperate and unsure where to turn, Beth
visited her neurologist and asked for any possible alternative. They spoke with
their doctor in Virginia at the time, Dr. Phillip Pearl, who has since gone on
to practice in Boston. The neurologist suggested giving cannabis a try since
nothing else was working, and Beth and Jennifer embarked on a very difficult
journey to try out a new treatment across the country.

“My husband works for the federal
government, and we couldn’t afford to leave, because he would have had to quit
his job, and I have another daughter who was here in high school, so I just
left with Jennifer,” Beth told us. “We went out to Colorado and tried CBD oil, which
made her seizures worse.”

Feeling frustrated at first, Beth
refused to give up and tried a slightly more controversial and lesser known
cannabis treatment, THCA oil, to help her daughter’s condition. “I did more
research and she got THCA oil and had amazing results,” Beth states. “At first
when she tried it, she was having a 95 percent decrease in seizures, and we
were able to reduce her medications. The results are still strong now, although
not quite up to 95 percent. This treatment reduced her rage, she is much
happier, lost 30 pounds, doesn’t have suicidal thoughts, and gets straight A’s
again in school.”

This was a huge victory for the Collins
family, but things were not ideal, as Jennifer’s medicine was illegal and
blacklisted back in Virginia where she usually resided. “Back in September
though, we thought, ‘What do we do now?’ She was getting helped, but our family
was apart. We decided to go back to Virginia and fight for access, and we came
back and stared working with some senators who wrote an affirmative dissent
medical cannabis bill. Basically, if we are caught with the oils we can’t be
prosecuted. We’ve been working on supporting the CARERS act, as well, even
though Schedule II is not ideal.”

In light of the harsh cannabis policy
that still remains in Virginia, allowing Jennifer access to her oil in her home
state was a huge victory, and because of this, Jennifer can finish school in
her hometown and receive the treatment she needs without uprooting her life. This
is a monumental success story, and Beth feels extremely optimistic about the
future of medical cannabis in America, although still a bit bitter regarding
how it is viewed in the public eye.

“I think it has amazing potential, and I
think it is a shame in this country that people have to feel ashamed for using
cannabis for medical purposes,” Beth shared. “I am highly pro medical cannabis.
I think it’s a shame that it’s gotten such a bad reputation thanks to the Nixon
era. It’s a medicine like any other medicine; we should be embracing it, and
excited about its potential, not begging for it from the government.”

Beth and Jennifer’s story is just one of
the many success stories for medical CBD oil and THCA oil in the country right
now, but it is nonetheless a very strong one. Jennifer’s strength in overcoming
her illness and Beth’s proactive lobbying for medical cannabis have made an
extremely big impact on the movement overall.