Until recently, two-year-old Kayla Williams suffered constant seizures — up to 200 each day. The problem not only made Kayla’s life a constant struggle, but it also had a dramatic impact on her development, meaning she hasn’t yet learned to walk or talk.
But not long ago her parents tried a new treatment for Kayla’s seizures: cannabis oil, which is extracted from hemp. To their surprise, the treatment stopped the seizures.
“Within 20 minutes of administering it the first time, she stopped her seizures completely,” noted Kayla’s grandmother, Elaine Nuessler. “She had six seizures earlier as I said goodbye to her, it was so hard to watch.”
The cannabis oil treatment is mostly legal because, while the oil contains hugh amounts of cannabidiol, or CBD, it has virtually no psychoactive ingredients. As a result, cannabis oil falls into a tricky middle ground between illegal and legal marijuana products.
It’s not as if Kayla’s family hasn’t tried other treatments for her seizures. They say the child was bombarded with a series of medications during her first year of life, but nothing seemed particularly effective. Only this most recent treatment, cannabis oil, has shown hopeful results.
Kayla’s grandfather, Chris Nuessler, happens to be a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer. In Canada, the RCMP is often tasked with cracking down on major drug operations, but Nuessler says it’s time health researchers spend more time exploring the health benefits of marijuana by-products, like cannabis oil.
Elaine wholeheartedly agrees. “We come from a background where we’ve never dealt with marijuana before in our lives,” she said. “We’ve discovered that it’s a healing plant.”
