A Calgary mother says medical marijuana is the only treatment that has helped her 8-year-old daughter.
Sarah Wilkinson’s daughter Mia has epilepsy, and conventional drugs haven’t worked, but the medical marijuana taken in oil form has dramatically reduced the number of seizures.
Wilkinson says it’s clear the marijuana is working, but now she’d like to know why.
Wilkinson says “this needs to be researched so it can potentially be available to every child that needs it.”
So far Health Canada has been unable to tell CTV if any clinical trials into medical marijuana have been approved or are underway.
Dr. Keith Sharkey from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary says "there are roughly 500 compounds in marijuana and that's the problem, if you will, with herbal remedies of this nature …that it's very difficult to sort out what an individual compound is doing”.
The Calgary neurologist who treats Mia wants her to have a DNA test that is only available in the U.S., but so far the family hasn’t been able to get public funding. The hope is that DNA may provide some further answers about Mia's rare form of epilepsy
Sarah Wilkinson has now launched an online fundraising effort to pay for test. http://www.gofundme.com/7q8sww
