A Republican congressman announced a bill Monday that would legalize therapeutic hemp and a marijuana oil for medical use.
The Charlotte’s Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014, introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), would remove cannabidiol (CBD) oil and therapeutic hemp from the federal definition of marijuana. Anecdotal evidence has shown that children with severe seizure disorders are finding relief via such treatment, and stories of children moving with one parent to Colorado for treatment while the other stays home to work are becoming increasingly common across the nation.
“Earlier this year I was approached by three local families whose children suffer from severe epilepsy,” Perry said in a news release. “As a father, I can’t imagine how helpless and crestfallen I’d feel to be essentially out of options, without any significant way to help my child; and these families live with this circumstance every single day. Their heartbreaking situations compelled me to act at the federal level to enable their access to a supplement that literally has changed lives — not only in the form of relief for the individual who suffers from this condition, but subsequently for their families and loved ones as well.”
Perry expects the bill to attract bipartisan support. It seeks to amend the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which categorizes marijuana as Schedule 1, meaning that it has “no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.” Perry’s measure would decriminalize CBD oil and therapeutic hemp, which has no more than 0.3 percent THC — too low to have any hallucinogenic effects.
Perry added that the legislation doesn’t reflect a change of heart on the matter of using marijuana recreationally, which he still opposes.
One of the families that helped inspire Perry’s bill is the Knecht family, according to CNN. Anna Knecht has had days with more than 100 seizures and her parents were tired of waiting for her to get a spot on a clinical trial for pharmaceutical cannabidiol. The 11 year old and her mother moved to Colorado after hearing about the dramatically positive results of other children using CBD oil for treatment of epilepsy.
Haleigh Cox has a similar story. Cox is 5 years old and was having hundreds of seizures a day while on five different medications to control them. Now on a regimen of cannabis oil four times a day and once at night, Haleigh is only having a handful of seizures per day, CNN reported.
Because of the lack of federal regulation, marijuana can’t be moved across state lines. Families in this situation are having to choose between potentially life-altering care for their children or keeping their family together.
Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Perry’s bill was the first federal legislation that would allow any sort of marijuana use. It has been updated.
