“…And a child shall lead them”…?
“Twelve-year-old Alexis Bortell uses a cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope to prevent life-threatening epileptic seizures.
She takes the oil orally by syringe, and keeps a THC spray on hand in case she experiences an aura, or pre-seizure event (maybe once every three to four weeks – far less often now). When doctors in Texas were left with no other option than to suggest an experimental lobotomy, her parents moved to Colorado. Cannabis had to be better than removing a portion of Bortell’s brain.
I’m now over two years seizure-free. In Texas, our goal was three days,” says Bortell, now in sixth grade. “It’s helped me succeed in school, since I don’t have to go to the nurse every day for auras and seizures. No medicine in Texas helped – and they had horrendous side effects worse than the seizures.’
Wise and articulate beyond her years, Bortell was invited to meet her representatives in Washington DC, but since she can’t go anywhere without her cannabis medicine, she couldn’t travel without committing a federal felony by transporting a Schedule I narcotic across state lines.
Even if she could travel to D.C. – where marijuana is legal – she can’t bring her medicine onto federal land, including the Capitol.
Now Bortell is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the federal government, and her attorneys argue that the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which classifies cannabis as illegal, infringes upon various constitutional rights.
‘This is a case about the civil rights of individuals to use medication to preserve their lives and health,’ says Bortell’s attorney, Michael Hiller, former professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. ‘It’s not just about cannabis, it’s about people’s ability to exercise their rights to free speech, their right to travel, right to petition the government for a redress of grievances under the First Amendment, the fundamental right to be left alone and the right against Congressional overreach.’
A ruling for the plaintiffs could mean federal “descheduling” of cannabis as any kind of federally recognized narcotic altogether. Any finding is likely to be appealed and could conceivably wind up in the Supreme Court.
In any event, states would continue to exercise regulatory powers as their constitutions permit, but might not be immune from similar suits.
Don’t miss the details in the article…. …Meanwhile, a big “You go, Alexis from us!
#MMJ #USpol #Court #UTpol #USNext #UtahNext #TRUCE
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See full article – How a 12-Year-Old Girl Could Help End Weed Prohibition in America
