U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being sued by a 12-year-old Colorado girl suffering from epilepsy who aims to legalize medical marijuana nationwide.
Alexis Bortell, along with her father and other plaintiffs, including former NFL
player Marvin Washington, filed suit in the Southern District of New
York against the attorney general as well as the Department of Justice
and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Many states now allow use of marijuana for at least some medical
reasons. The lawsuit filed in July seeks to make medical marijuana legal
across the U.S.
"This lawsuit stands to benefit tens of millions of Americans who
require, but are unable to safely obtain, Cannabis for the treatment of
their illnesses, diseases and medical conditions," the suit states.
Alexis, whose family moved to Colorado from Texas to take advantage of
the state’s legalization of recreational and medical marijuana, had been
suffering since she was 7 from a form of epilepsy that cannot be safely
controlled with FDA-approved treatments and procedures, the lawsuit
says.
As a result, she often had multiple seizures a day. "Nothing she tried
worked," the suit states. When her family finally tried a form of
marijuana, the girl found "immediate relief from her seizures."
"Since being on whole-plant medical Cannabis, Alexis has gone more than two years seizure-free," the suit says.
The suit contends that Alexis won’t be able to return to her native
Texas where she hopes to attend college because she would be subject to
arrest if she continued to use marijuana to control her seizures.
ABC News reached out to the Justice Department for comment on the lawsuit but did not get an immediate response.
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