This 8-Year-Old Girl Just Became Mexico's First Medical Marijuana Patient Gabriela Gorbea - VICE News
go to original September 12, 2015

Marijuana legalization advocates are hoping that the eight-year-old girl's story will reach Mexico's Congress, and open the door for an eventual cannabis legalization. (Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

An eight-year-old girl nicknamed "Grace" is the first Mexican citizen allowed to use a cannabis-derived product for medical purposes, overcoming the country's generally stiff official view on drugs.

But Mexico's government appeared to scramble to emphasize that the Tuesday decision to permit a cannabinoid to treat 8-year-old Graciela Elizalde did not mean that marijuana or marijuana products were legalized. Yet the move appeared to set a significant precedent that could alter drug policy in the country, legalization activists said.

Mexico has experienced waves of drug-war violence since the government in 2006 sent the military to the streets to combat drug cartels. Consumption of small amounts of marijuana was decriminalized in Mexico in 2009.

Elizalde suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes up to 400 epileptic seizures a day, preventing her from walking, speaking, or attending school. The girl's parents, Raul Elizalde and Mayela Benavides, tried every legally available treatment to alleviate their daughter's symptoms, including brain surgery.

But nothing stopped the seizures, and Elizalde's parents decided to turn to a public social-media campaign to apply pressure so that Mexican authorities could approve a cannabinoid treatment for Grace. Elizalde's parents told reporters they became aware of an increasing number of Lennox-Gastaut cases being treated with CBD, a non psychoactive cannabidiol with medical properties that can help suppress seizure activity.

The use of a cannabis to treat illnesses is legal in some US states, some countries in Europe, and in Canada, but Mexican authorities have been reluctant to offer a blanket legalization of its use and importation, regardless of a patient's needs.

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