Can Marijuana Product be Used to Treat Children’s Seizures?

In the wake of the Georgia legislature’s failure to OK medicinal uses for marijuana this year, researchers at Georgia Regents University are studying a marijuana extract to determine if it works as a treatment for children with seizures.

The product under study is called Epidolex, a GW Pharmaceuticals product that uses cannabidiol, a marijuana extract also known as CBD that doesn’t get users high, university officials said Tuesday, according to WSB-TV.

The plan for the study is a result of the failure to pass a bill during the 2014 legislative session that would have allowed for limited medical use of CBD in Georgia.

Georgia State Rep. Allen Peake had proposed the bill after a visit with a 4-year-old Haleigh Cox, according to The Huffington Post. “[The bill was] the result of seeing the pain and suffering she goes through, having 100 seizures a day, and seeing a potential remedy through cannabidiol treatment, I was compelled to move to action,” Peake said.

Researching the efficacy of the marijuana extract is a continued step in the right direction, Peake told Patch Wednesday.

However, Epidolex is not the product that was proposed by Peake in the bill earlier this year. The proposed product was similar to what is being used in Colorado, which has minimal traces of THC, the ingredient that gives marijuana users a high. However the proposed medicinal product would not have had enough THC to make users high.

“There is still an indication that it will be several years before [Epidolex] would be available to the general public,” Peake said. “That is a concern because some of these kids don’t have several years to wait. That has been the hesitation of having Epidolex as our only option.”

Peake said that he will continue to push for the previous product that was proposed in this year’s bill as a means of helping  children who suffer from severe seizures.

“I just know if Haleigh was my daughter or my grandchild, I would be moving heaven and earth to make sure [cannabidiol] was available,” Peake said in the Huffington Post story. “That’s how we need to look at it. This is somebody’s child.”

According to WSB-TV, the Food and Drug Administration has already approved clinical trials of Epidolex at 12 sites that would involve more than 300 children.

“I’m grateful to Georgia Regents University and GW Pharmaceuticals for their leadership on this venture, and I’m confident that this public-partnership will deliver relief and improve quality of life for these children and their families,” Governor Nathan Deal said in a written statement.