Parents turn to cannabis oil after son's seizures

By Kasey Cunningham
LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A Rineyville family is advocating for the legality of medical marijuana after cannabis oil helped eliminate their son's seizures.

Tim and Julie Cantwell discovered their son Preston was suffering from petit mal seizures after he was unresponsive and for several seconds at a time, throughout the day. He was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 4 years old.

"He just didn't seem right. He would look at you, but then he was gone,” Julie Cantwell said.

“To a person looking at him, it will look like he's not paying attention or zoning out,” Tim Cantwell added.

The Cantwells visited multiple neurologists all over the country. At this point, Preston was taking dozens of pills a day, but still suffering from the seizures.

Preston's battle with epilepsy had gotten increasingly worse, but it was a severe seizure that caused the Cantwells to take a trip to Colorado to the Realm of Healing this past July.

“He was blue. It was horrible, horrible,” Julie Cantwell said.

The Cantwells met experts who helped them figure out dosages based on Preston's height and weight. They took the Charlotte’s Web cannabis oil back to Kentucky and after six weeks, took Preston to his neurologist appointment in August at Kosair Children’s Hospital.

“The results came in. He went from roughly hundreds of seizures a day to zero,” Julie Cantwell said.

It was all the evidence the Cantwells needed, though the medical community in Kentucky is still looking into it. The Kentucky Medical Association said they are advocating for further clinical research of cannabis as treatment for medical conditions.

The KMA is working on facilitating evidence based discussions surrounding it's use, but the Cantwells are starting their own discussion and sharing Preston's story - hoping lawmakers will decide to allow it here in Kentucky.

They get the cannabis oil shipped to their home every six weeks. It costs about $250 per bottle.

They joined the advocacy group Kentuckians for Medical Marijuana. They plan to meet with lawmakers later this October to share their story and advocate for the legality of marijuana in the Bluegrass State.