Out-Of-State 'Cannamoms' Visit Bay Area To Get Medical Marijuana For Their Kids
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – Parents from across the country, including a group of moms from Florida, are traveling to the Bay Area to give their sick children what they can't get at home: medical marijuana.
"We are here for safe, consistent access to medication for our children," said Renee Petro.
It's medication they can't get at home. Because what they want to give their kids, is marijuana.
"You can't go down the street and give street stuff to children. And that's why we're here," said Anneliese Clark.
These kids, either with forms of epilepsy or brain tumors, have tried all the pharmaceuticals doctors have recommended. Some have helped. But pot helps more than most. And in Florida, you can't legally buy it.
"Unfortunately, the FDA approved medications that were prescribed to our children were very dangerous, even deadly. And most of them get our children high," Florida mom Moira Bernhart told KPIX 5.
Morphine for instance. The strain of pot these kids ingest through drops contain mostly CDB, an agent that does not get someone stoned. But some have THC, which does. And that's OK with them.
"My son, he's on a Benzo drug, which bad side effects want to make him commit suicide. He's asked me several times to kill him. But with THC, at night, he asks me for a bag of Cheetos." Petro said.
They're living in a gray area of the law. Coming to California to obtain a medicinal marijuana card when they aren't living in the state is likely illegal.
They don't care. They'll do whatever it takes. And they've come to learn what they can about the drug, and this is the place to do that.
"In almost every state of the union, the state of medical marijuana resources is horribly poor, they're the dark ages. California has been in this Renaissance period for a very long time," said Kymron deCesare of Steep Hill Analytics.
And so, these "CannaMoms," as they call themselves, are now set to go home, armed with medicines they think will help their children survive. Medicines that are not available where they live. And knowledge to pass on to others like them.
The CannaMoms said they came to California instead of states where marijuana is legal because of all the experts on medical marijuana.