An 8-Year-Old's Tragic Illness Tests Mexico's Ban on Medical Marijuana Use Joshua Partlow - The Washington Post
go to original August 29, 2015

Valentina, 2, comforts her sister Grace as she goes through one of her hourly convulsions in the living room of their home in Monterrey on Aug. 12. (Adriana Zehbrauskas/The Washington Post)

They can tell the next one’s coming when she begins rubbing her hands together, as if washing them. Her head slumps, and she looks left. She starts to flick her fingers and knead her skinny thigh.

About once an hour, Grace Elizalde’s brain electrifies in epileptic seizures intense enough that her brown eyes dance wildly back and forth and she spreads her arms out like a cartoon ghost. These are the big brain quakes, but there are hundreds of flash tremors each day that leave the 8-year-old Mexican girl exhausted and limp.

After years of cycling through anti-convulsive medications, her family is now desperate to try the one experimental treatment that Mexico prohibits — a marijuana oil that has helped American children in similar conditions. But even as American states approve marijuana for recreational and medicinal use, the country that is the main channel for illegal narcotics to the United States opposes legalization as staunchly as ever.

With the exception of more liberal Mexico City, public opinion in this socially conservative country falls strongly against legalization. Tens of thousands of Mexicans have died in the country’s war with its drug-trafficking gangs, a toll that hasn’t weakened the government’s policy.

Earlier this month, though, a federal judge ruled that the Mexican government could not prevent Grace’s parents from importing cannabidiol (CBD) to treat her seizures. If the family can obtain the product, Grace could become the first person to legally use marijuana in Mexico.

“We’re up against time,” said her father, Raul Elizalde. “The seizures keep getting stronger ... This is our last chance.”

Read the rest at The Washington Post

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