Cannabis

the case. A court ruled it would be “inhumane” to keep the drugs away from Annie. Within two years, three other Latin American countries followed suit.

It became the subject of the Netflix documentary “Illegal.”

As for Harper, her story wasn’t over. In fact it was about to take a tragic turn.

Six months after starting RSHO, she was seizure free and stayed that way for the next three years. Unfortunately, though, on Jan. 8, 2016 Harper succumbed to CDKL5. The family was devastated.

To keep Harper alive in her own unique way, the family donated her organs to science. She is the first organ donor to have cannabidiol in her system. Researchers around the world could see how the drug was helping Harper while she was alive to possibly develop a treatment. They could also research the use on the drug for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and a host of diseases with seizures as a symptom.

Harper’s brain is currently being studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Within the next 12 months the Howard family will travel to Penn to view the brain under a microscope. The family says this is just the next phase of Harper’s life.

“We want to see Harper leave this legacy, share this hope in her new form,” Howard said, “I don’t think she died. She just moved on to a new form.”

Lillyann Baker

Lillyann Baker, 3, of Baltimore, was accidently dropped on her head when she was an infant, which caused a traumatic brain injury. As a result, she developed epilepsy, which causes severe seizures. The injury means Barker must use a wheelchair. Before beginning RSHO, Lillyann didn’t smile or laugh and her therapists feared she school.

Yet rather than rely solely on prescription medications to treat her daughter, Lillyann’s mother Cassandra Stephan decided to try cannabis oils to see if they would have any positive effect. After trying six different products over the course of a six month period, Stephan said she discovered RSHO, which worked wonders.

“It’s kept her seizure free for over a year now,” she said. “Her doctor has decided to start weening her off of one of her medications because we haven’t needed to touch it.”

The good news doesn’t stop there. Lillyann has started to smile, to laugh, she’s even crawled on the floor. She’s also begun making progress in school.

“I get letters from school all the time saying how great she’s doing,” Stephan said. “At first she wasn’t doing anything. Now she’s happy. She’s fun. She shows emotions. Our family calls it our medical miracle.” would be taken out of

Grace Elizalde

Raul Elizalde and his family were the first in Mexico to sue the federal government and win the right to import cannabidiol hemp oil to treat their daughter Grace’s severe form of epilepsy known as Lennox-Gastaux Syndrome.

Before then, Grace’s condition was so bad that the Elizalde family watched helplessly as Grace would have about 400 seizures a day.

“That is not Elizalde said.

When he first heard the idea of trying cannabis oils to help reduce the seizures, Elizalde said he rejected it. Soon though, he started doing research and realized it might be worth a try. Doctors didn’t have any other solutions for Grace.

Elizalde and his family agreed that it was worth trying but unfortunately the oils were illegal in Mexico. The Mexican Health Department denied their request to access the drugs, stating their wasn’t enough evidence that they having a life,” could help Grace.

“We don’t care if there’s not enough evidence,” he said. “If there’s a little evidence we should try it.”

A Mexican federal judge agreed and overruled the health department’s decision.

The first signs of improvement were almost instantaneous. Grace started sleeping through the night, after months without sleeping from the constant seizures. Then Grace’s mood started to improve and the family noticed other positive signs of change taking place.

After two months of receiving the oil treatments, Grace’s seizures were reduced by 50 percent.

“The treatment exceeded our expectations.” Elizalde said. “Grace is more focused, she is happier and she looks different.”

Today at 10 years old, on a bad day, Grace will have between 10 and 20 seizures.

“If she has 20 seizures we feel badly,” Elizalde said. “But then we remember she used to have 400.”