The Right to Choose
It is a story that is becoming increasingly common—parents who espouse traditional family values are turning to cannabis, not as recreational relief of familial stress, but as a way to treat serious medical conditions that their children face. The Ross family is Mormon, so when young son William, who is now six years old, began to show serious signs of chronic seizures, treatment with cannabis was initially the furthest option from their minds.
The first indication of William’s disorder happened when he began experiencing drop seizures, which caused him to fall to the ground suddenly in the middle of eating, walking or doing other normal daily activities. After taking William to the doctor, parents Doug and Sorya Ross learned that he had epilepsy, and from there his symptoms became worse. He started having seizures more and more frequently, and the intensity of his condition drastically affected his lifestyle and moods.
“He hugged me for the first time in months, so we knew [cannabis treatment] was a positive thing.”
“He stopped talking, walking and eating and for a while there he would even refuse water, but the doctors warned us that he could go into liver failure, so we were force feeding him Gatorade,” Sorya Ross told CULTURE. “My dad had previously told me about a special he saw on CNN about how marijuana helped with seizures, so that was always in the back of my head.”
Sorya was able to completely dismiss the idea of medicating with cannabis at first, but as time wore on and things got worse, she began to reconsider. The doctors warned the Ross family that since the three pharmaceuticals they had tried for William were unsuccessfully, surgery to correct one side of his brain might be the only way to get relief for him. However, the family was also warned that this surgery might not work, and that it could potentially paralyze their son.
After one particularly hard night with William, Sorya reached her breaking point and went outside to pray. She was overcome with the feeling that everything was going to be OK. However, 20 minutes later, William had his first bad grand mal seizure, and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Feeling out of options, the Ross family finally decided to try cannabis. It was April 2014 when the family, who resides in California, first ventured into an Oakland dispensary to get CBD for their son. However, they were so nervous about giving him cannabis that they did not administer the first dose until May. When they finally did give him the oil, Doug and Sorya immediately saw positive results.
“ . . . this has been an answer to our prayers. We truly believe this is God’s plan.”
“We noticed within the first hour he was calm and asked for a glass of water, and he wanted to eat,” Sorya explained. “He hugged me for the first time in months, so we knew [cannabis treatment] was a positive thing. We were open to it at that point, but it wasn’t helping with the seizures and because it was a higher THC ratio, we were scared of him getting high.”
The Ross family now knew they were on the right track, but still hadn’t quite discovered the perfect formula for helping with their son’s seizures. For guidance, they turned to Jason David, the man who created Jayden’s Juice for his own son named Jayden. This a CBD product was specifically made to help patients like William. They began to give Jayden’s Juice to William and immediately noticed a reduction in seizures. William is still taking Jayden’s Juice today.
“He is down to one seizure a month in his sleep; he doesn’t have them awake. He’s a normal little boy, with no aggression. This has been an answer to our prayers,” said Sorya. “We truly believe this is God’s plan.”
The Mormon Church forbids a variety of substances, so the couple was anxious about disclosing their son’s new treatment to their Bishop and Doug’s family, who is also Mormon. To their pleasant surprise, their Bishop accepted the treatment after a brief interview where he asked questions about CBD and cannabis oil. William’s grandparents, who had witnessed the horror of his constant seizures, were also supportive of the treatment.
Throughout this difficult journey, the Ross family had faith in their religion to guide them and give them hope when things got tough. Although discovering cannabis treatment may sound uncommon for a Mormon family, William and his parents are proof that having an open mind about medical cannabis and going to any lengths possible to help a child can yield miraculous results.
