After using cannabis oil to ease his daughter’s suffering, Adam Koessler is now facing jail time.
Yahoo news covered the story of Koessler who hoped to ease his daughter’s pain with cannabis oil. 2-year-old Rumer Rose was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma (a malignant tumour, commonly found in the adrenal gland) recently. While medical marijuana is illegal in many parts of the world, including Australia, where Koessler resides, that did not deter him for supplementing Rumer’s chemo treatments with doses of cannabis oil to ease her pain.
Koessler was arrested on 2 January 2014 at the Brisbane hospital where Rumer is being treated and was released on bail but now he faces charges of possessing dangerous drugs and supplying them to a minor. He is due back in court on Friday.
Cannabis oil is extracted from Marijuana and/or the hemp plant and is otherwise known as has oil. Medical Marijuana often used as a pain-killer.
“Your body already makes marijuana-like chemicals that affect pain, inflammation, and many other processes. Marijuana can sometimes help those natural chemicals work better”, says Laura Borgelt, PharmD, of the University of Colorado as reported by webmd.
Medical Marijuana is illegal in most countries, and comes with various negative effects.
In a report by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, it states that Marijuana over-activates parts of the brain that contain the highest number of brain cell receptors that ordinarily react to natural THC-like (mind-altering chemicaldelta-9-tetrahydrocannabino) chemicals in the brain. This causes the “high” that users feel. Other effects include:
- altered senses (for example, seeing brighter colors)
- altered sense of time
- changes in mood
- impaired body movement
- difficulty with thinking and problem-solving
- impaired memory
Koessler’s kind intention has sparked an uproar of comments online, with numerous netizens rallying around him and protesting the decision by the authorities.
Read on to see the furor sparked from his actions.
A change.org petition supporting Koessler have received over 200 thousand supporters since it first started a year ago.
Comments on the situation by these supporters include, “He is a father doing whatever possible to save his child… let him go,” with some of them advocating a change in law,
“If the law states that this man cannot give his terminally ill… daughter something that improves her quality of life, than the law needs to be changed. The fact that this man has had his parental rights taken away by an ignorant legal system that has absolutely no right to do so absolutely disgusts me.”
After finding about the tumour, Doctors proposed 12 months of chemotherapy. Rumer’s dad and mum (who are not a couple) started a therapy of naturopathic medicine, gluten-free meals, and medical-grade cannabis oil. These treatments have been used around the world, with varying success rates, to treat conditions from ulcers and migraines to cancer and epilepsy.
While the notion of treating children with marijuana remains controversial and factually unproven, Koessler says the oil worked wonders.
Koessler reports that the use of Cannabis oil has amazing results for his child.
“What we saw when Rumer was given the medical cannabis oil what nothing short of miraculous. Her cancer ridden little body was alive again — Rumer had almost instant quality of life…Her skin color came back, her eyes were sparkling again…We were certain after seeing these results that her recovery was entirely possible.”
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Image credit: Facebook/ Adam Koessler