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Question: why are we giving our nine-year-old a marijuana cookie?
Answer: because he can't figure out how to use a bong.
My son J has autism. He’s also had two serious surgeries for a spinal cord tumor and has an inflammatory bowel condition, all of which may be causing him pain, if he could tell us. He can say words, but many of them—"duck in the water, duck in the water"—don't convey what he means. For a time, anti-inflammatory medication seemed to control his pain. But in the last year, it stopped working. He began to bite and to smack the glasses off my face. If you were in that much pain, you’d probably want to hit someone, too.
J's school called my husband and me in for a meeting about J's tantrums, which were affecting his ability to learn. The teachers were wearing tae kwon do arm pads to protect themselves against his biting. Their solution was to hand us a list of child psychiatrists. Since autistic children like J can’t exactly do talk therapy, this meant sedating, antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal—Thorazine for kids.
Last year, Risperdal was prescribed for more than 389,000 children—240,000 of them under the age of 12—for bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism, and other disorders. Yet the drug has never been tested for long-term safety in children and carries a severe warning of side effects. From 2000 to 2004, 45 pediatric deaths were attributed to Risperdal and five other popular drugs also classified as “atypical antipsychotics,” according to a review of FDA data by USA Today. When I canvassed parents of autistic children who take Risperdal, I didn't hear a single story of an improvement that seemed worth the risks. A 2002 study specifically looking at the use of Risperdal for autism, in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed moderate improvements in “autistic irritation”—but if you read more closely, the study followed only 49 children over eight weeks, which, researchers admitted, “limits inferences about adverse effects.”
We met with J's doctor, who’d read the studies and agreed: No Risperdal or its kin.
The school called us in again. What were we going to do, they asked. As a sometimes health writer and blogger, I was intrigued when a homeopath suggested medical marijuana. Cannabis has long-documented effects as an analgesic and an anxiety modulator. Best of all, it is safe. The homeopath referred me to a publication by the Autism Research Institute describing cases of reduced aggression, with no permanent side effects. Rats given 40 times the psychoactive level merely fall sleep. Dr. Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who has been researching cannabis for 40 years, says he has yet to encounter a case of marijuana causing a death, even from lung cancer.
A prescription drug called Marinol, which contains a synthetic cannabinoid, seemed mainstream enough to bring up with J’s doctor. I cannot say that with a few little pills, everything turned around. But after about a week of playing around with the dosage, J began garnering a few glowing school reports: “J was a pleasure have in speech class,” instead of “J had 300 aggressions today.”
But J tends to build tolerance to synthetics, and in a few months, we could see the aggressive behavior coming back. One night, I went to the meeting of a medical marijuana patient advocacy group on the campus of the college where I teach. The patients told me that Marinol couldn’t compare to marijuana, the plant, which has at least 60 cannabinoids to Marinol’s one.
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Comments
I can only imagine the amount
By: sandralee | Mon, 01/04/2010 - 09:04
I can only imagine the amount of pain that little boy is experiencing. I do not know that marijuana can really be useful in such conditions. But how come the chiropractic care does not have permanent solution for it? I mean he is a 9-year-old boy and at this age recovery seems to be fast. Regarding the risperdal use, it does have some scary stories associated with it in terms of side effects so i think you have taken a right decision of not going through that way especially if it is not helping much. Homeopathy is a good option when eleopathy else fails but it does takes its own time to cure. I hope your child will get well soon.
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Chiropractic?
By: KBS1313 | Sat, 11/28/2009 - 18:42
Just wondering if you've tried chiropractic therapy as well? I've seen an article on chiropratic care that included a boy who was acting up in school, and the school wanted him diagnosed with ADD. His parents tried a chiropractor, and it helped. Just wanted to throw it out there as one more possibility. If the wires are crimped, the current can't get through properly. Chiropractic can help straighten out some of the kinks.
Thank you for posting your story so that others might benefit as well.
MM
By: Jsmith | Wed, 11/25/2009 - 06:51
Just wanted to say how much i enjoyed this story.
Good on you for keeping your kid away from dangerous pharmaceuticals.
MM is not a cure all and has its down sides just like any substance we put in our bodies. Under controlled dosage it is one of the most harmless substances on the planet.
Also on the vaporizing, if you can afford a decent vape and can get him to use it, it is definitely the way to go. Much easier to manage the dose.
There should be NO smell left in the house after using a vaporizer if it is working correctly. Just a blue mist that quickly go's away.
Also you can get balloons that you can fill to be inhaled.
Anyway good luck
MARIJUANA COOKIE
By: anahey | Wed, 11/18/2009 - 20:02
will i think this is good for children and people who want to calm down and for medicinal purposes also as long as you don;t eat too much of it so that you will not feel high
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Pot for Autism
By: stacey | Tue, 11/03/2009 - 21:08
Mom, 3 cheers for not caving in to pressures of society and letting yourself be guided to some truly authentic answers... You are to be hailed as a pioneering, inspiring and inspired caretaker. All my best. XOXO ~Stacey Kirkland Mesa,AZ
God Made Canabis for Medicinal Purposes
By: Spirit | Fri, 10/09/2009 - 00:07
I want to say sorry that some people who don't know what they are talking about find it ok to bad mouth you for helping your child.
I myself am a firm believer in that God works in ways that we don't
all understand. I also believe that God made canabis for us to use
for medicinal reasons - Who are we to question what someone else is
doing to help their child. Would you people rather see this mother
put her son on man made drugs that have aweful side effects or see
her use what God has made with no side effects - he isn't smoking it
so there is no harm in it - even the food and drug people know that
that is why it is used for cancer patients and for other kinds of
medical reasons. I have an 11yr old son that has Asperger's and
have even thought about checking into using canibis as a treatment
for evening out his emotional problem. I know that it would stop so
much of the anger part of his problems - problems that himself has
no control over and doesn't understand why he is the way he is and
even as a 11 yr old has said he would like to die because he is the
way he is. He has even said he wants to kill others so I see no wrong
in what this mother is doing for her child - I take my hat off to her
for trusting in God made then Man made.
Thanks for Sharing
By: kenny_b | Wed, 10/07/2009 - 14:24
My 11 year old daughter is mildly autistic. She is not high functioning. She is a couple of years behind her peers academically. We also have taken the steps of the gluten/casien free diet. She also receives a methyl b-12 shot every third day. We have found the diet and shot have improved her communicative abilities and mood swings immensely. She still gets intensely upset at times and frequently bites the back of her hand (very hard), she has scars on them from years of doing this. She doesn't have the gut pain that your son has. I am very interested in the stress relief the MM has on your son. I will be have a conversation with our DAN! Dr. the next time we see him. Thank you so much for sharing your story, you brought tears to my eyes!
I have noticed that most of the negative comments seem to have come from folks that don't have autistic children.
I'd also like to say thanks to the 48 year old Aspergers' gentleman who kindly shared his experience with MM. I appreciate the insight of what an Autistic person's life has been like from someone who never received the benefit of a diagnosis until much later in life.
I created an account just to
By: alix | Tue, 10/06/2009 - 08:57
I created an account just to respond to the fool below. Yes, it is much better to let your son suffer than to treat his pain -- even if he cannot understand or explain to you why/how much he suffers. How dare you care more about your son's welfare than what the neighbors think?
Yeah, right. I have a 6-year-old with Asperger's. He's very high-functioning, and I cannot imagine facing the kind of challenges the author's family has. The one thing we have in common is that EVERY DAY we have to do what's best for our kids, regardless of what the uneducated people around us think. (Because E. appears to be neuro-typical, we get lots of comments about our failure to discipline him and the fact that he just "needs a good spanking". Yes, and we'd treat a broken leg by taking away TV privileges. Makes perfect sense, right?)
Autism - Pain - Pot
By: rtimmerm | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 16:22
I absolutely LOVED your article for so many reasons ! I also appreciated the pharmicist's comments. It seems so awful that it is "legal" to give drugs with terrible side effects and yet "illegal" to use pot. I wish there would be more information/research/case studies available on pot use for autism. (I am a teacher of such students!)
You are probably the coolest
By: masterteevis | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 22:49
You are probably the coolest parent ever. But seriously, isn't it ridiculous how the government can tell us what we should and shouldn't put into our own bodies. If it were up to them, you'd be arrested for drugs and probably endangering the welfare of your child, even though the "approved drugs" do more harm than good. Enough of my ranting, more power to you and good luck to you and your son. :)