Mormon Family Flees Utah for Medical Cannabis

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]E[/dropcap]leven-year-old Holden Cromar suffers from constant seizures—sometimes enduring over 100 seizures per day. The Cromar family, after learning of the healing effects of medical cannabis, finally found something that effectively reduces the number of Holden’s seizures. And because medical cannabis is illegal in Utah, the Cromars will soon become the latest cannabis refugee family to relocate to Colorado.

Often a child’s well-being will supersede all other priorities in the eyes of the parents. The constant seizures grew to become unbearable. “It’s horrible. I wouldn’t wish this life on anybody. You know watching your baby suffer and almost die every single day,” Holden’s father David Cromar told Fox 13.

The turning point was when doctors suggested brain surgery. That was when they turned to their last resort, medical cannabis. While living in Colorado, Holden was able to have access to THC-A and cannabis oil, reducing his seizures by 50 percent.

“He was able to either re-learn or have access to everything he knew before that we thought he lost. Colors, numbers, letters,” Cromar said. “We really felt like we needed to be closer to family again, so we moved back to Utah and thought we could make it work.”

Famously, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) opposed the Utah Medical Cannabis Act, although they did support a more restrictive CBD measure. In response to the prospect of a medical cannabis program, the church released a lengthy memo on the potential dangers written by Mormon spokesman Kirton McConkie. Despite Mormons maintaining a decades-long supermajority over the Utah Legislature, Utahns will have the ultimate say when they vote on the initiative this November. But a medical cannabis program in the state is still years away.

Now the Cromar family is considering moving back to Colorado permanently, simply for the access to medical cannabis to improve the quality of life for Holden. According to Cromar, Mormons who are living in Colorado have a different view about medical cannabis, and are much more accepting.

The Cromars put their St. George, Utah home up for sale in order to move across state lines where medical cannabis is legal.