Mother of severely-disabled girl illegally uses cannabis oil to lessen child's pain; rallies for medical marijuana legalisation

By Ritwik Roy

 

 

A child wearing a marijuana leaf hat poses during a rally in support of cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes in Chile, Santiago March 18, 2015. Several families gathered in front of the government palace in support of the use of the cannabis oil to their children sick with epilepsy, according to the organizers. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado 

 

Sarah Ellett, a 43-year-old Utah single mum, gives two drops of cannabis oil a day to her three-year-old daughter Remie Ellett. According to Ellett, these two drops of cannabis oil keeps her daughter walking and free of the side-effects from the numerous illnesses she suffers.

Severely-disabled and ill Remie suffers from respiratory problems, thyroid and digestive problems. She even requires a feeding tube. However, her mother is afraid to lose custody of her daughter as using cannabis oil on children is illegal and may lead to criminal punishment.

Sarah believes that she would have to move out of the state in order to prolong her daughter’s life until and unless medical marijuana is made legal.

According to People, Ellett believes that someone had tipped off the authorities about her cannabis oil treatment as caseworkers from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services visited her on Monday. Sarah puts small droplets of cannabis oil under her daughter Remie’s tongue with a toothpick.

According to her, cannabis oil significantly improved Remie's panhypopituitarism symptoms.

Panhypopituitarism reduces and sometimes destroys the function of the pituitary gland, causing low blood sugar, blurred vision, vomiting and stunted growth.

“The cannabis oil is a miracle – it's what is giving her a good quality of life,” Sarah told People.

Even though growth hormones and thyroid and hydrocortisone medications helped, cannabis oil made Remie walk on her own the very day she had it. Sarah even said that cannabis helped in balancing Remie’s blood sugar, enabled her to move her jaw, controlled her nausea and allowed her to chew and swallow.

Since witnessing a dramatic turnaround in her daughter Remie’s health after treating her with cannabis oil, Sarah has rallied with other patients and parents to get a bill passed in Utah for legalising medical marijuana.

She also rallied with Enedina Stanger, the disabled mother of two who was arrested in 2015 for smoking pot to ease her symptoms.

“Once again, we see Utah state agencies enforcing outdated and ignorant cannabis policy, and again the outcome is unjust and cruel at best,” said Republican state representative Mark Madsen, who is sponsoring the bill that would legalise whole plant marijuana for Utah patients.

Utah DCFS officials did not comment on Ellett's situation.