Mexican Judge Authorizes Use of Cannabis to Treat Young Epileptic

MEXICO CITY – An 8-year-old girl who suffers from severe epilepsy is being treated with a cannabis derivative thanks to a landmark ruling by a Mexican judge.

“We started administering a first dose to Grace,” the patient’s mother, Mayela Benavides, told EFE. “The doctor told us it would be 0.25 milliliters in the morning and 0.25 milliliters in the evening.”

Grace, who experiences as many as 400 seizures a day, will continue receiving the four anticonvulsant drugs she is already taking, Benavidez said.

The physician treating Grace told her parents that it would take at least a month for the new medicine to begin to have an effect.

Even so, the family has high hopes for the treatment.

“We hope there will be a decrease in her seizures or, better yet, that they disappear, and with that her quality of life improves and her motor development advances,” Benavides said.

Acting on the recommendation of health officials, a judge agreed in August to issue a special exemption allowing the parents to import the medication containing cannabidiol, a substance prohibited by Mexican law.

“The path is now open and sign-posted, so the next time will be easier,” Benavides said.

Grace’s father traveled to Mexico City on Monday to take delivery of the medication and speak at a press conference on medicinal marijuana.

He flew home to Monterrey, the largest city in northern Mexico, on Tuesday.

“We got home by 10:15 p.m. and by then Grace was asleep,” Benavides said. “And we gave her the oil just like that, she didn’t even make a face.”

The mint and chocolate-flavored compound, sold under the commercial name of Charlotte’s Web, is a low-THC cannabis extract.