Mo. lawmakers emotional plea helps get cannabis oil bill passed
Missouri lawmakers have overwhelmingly passed a bill that would make a cannabis extract a legal treatment for some patients with epilepsy.
The extract contains very little of the substance that makes marijuana users feel high, but it has been shown to be effective in treating some of the symptoms of epilepsy.
Patients will have to demonstrate that they've already tried other treatments without success.
Missouri State Sen. Eric Schmitt of St. Louis helped push the measure through, saying the extract could be helpful to his 9-year-old son.
"All I can do is hold him at night and I wonder what he might say to me if he's scared and all I can do is hold him and love him," Schmitt said. "We pray for something that might ease his condition."
He said this extract won't have a recreational use.
"You can't get high on this," he said. "It only has that medicinal value."
There have been cases of families leaving Missouri to go to states with more lenient marijuana laws in order to get treatment for various medical conditions.
Sydni Yunek, 10, moved from Kansas City to Colorado so she could use cannabis extract to treat her epilepsy. Her mother, Holli Brown, said since she got to Colorado, her seizures have dropped by 75 percent.
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Mo. lawmakers pass bill legalizing cannabis oil for epilepsy