1
We went in,
and they said, you know,
"This tumor's had
such a growth spurt
that we need to make sure that
this isn't a high-grade glioma."
And I said,
"Well, what if it is?"
They said, "Your daughter
will not live
to see her 2nd birthday."
Thank you for allowing people
to open their minds, Lord,
to see that this is your gift
to us, your gift from heaven,
that you have given us this
medicine to treat our babies.
When we found out
about Sophie's brain tumor,
I had no idea this would be
the gift from God to her.
- Amen.
- Amen.
When your kid's got cancer,
the rule book goes out
the window, really.
You need to get them well,
and you need to do
everything that you can
to make them well.
And I wouldn't feel right
if I didn't explore
everything that there was.
They found over
20 tumors in his chest.
At that time,
Dr. Storch told us,
"Now is the time
to do alternative medicine."
People have been
using cannabis as a medicine
for 5,000 years.
THC has always been kind of
the star of the show,
because it's
the most psychoactive.
But then research
started showing
that there were a lot of other
cannabinoids in the plant
that had as many, if not more,
therapeutic effects.
For me, one of the most
exciting areas is,
is cannabis
an anti-cancer agent?
The number of different ways
that cannabis and cannabinoids
in the test tube
seem to suppress cancer
is quite impressive.
In oncology, we often say,
"The plural of anecdote
is not evidence."
Cancer cells plus cannabis
together in a Petri dish.
We know what happens there.
There's a lot of studies
that show that.
- Right.
- We do not have human studies,
and certainly, we don't have
studies in pediatrics.
Blood pressure's perfect.
Yeah.
If we want to use
marijuana as a medicine,
we need to make it a medicine.
We haven't done that yet.
My friend dying from pancreatic
cancer can't wait for studies.
Yeah.
That's the problem.
My child can't wait for studies.
The controversy about
it kind of makes me mad,
because it's at
the cost of our children.
You know, it's at the cost
of our loved ones.
A lot of people
don't want to try this
because of the reputation.
One can argue
that there's a human right
to have the government
provide you with a medicine.
But at the very least,
there has to be a consensus
that the government should
never deprive you of access
to a medicine
which can be helpful.
Why as a society
are we denying people
the use of something
that I have seen firsthand
over and over
and over again be helpful?
You ready to
kick cancer in the butt?
Yay!
Oh, so excited!
It started off
with a swollen tonsil,
which I just thought
was a throat infection,
so it didn't
concern me too much.
So, then the lump didn't go away
with antibiotics.
So we got admitted.
And that's when they thought
he had 10 days
before it blocked his airways,
and 8 days later,
he got the diagnosis.
I was really surprised
when the doctor came in
and handed me
this treatment plan.
And I just thought,
"That's really odd that
it's already been designed."
And then I realized
that it was one-size-fits-all
for that particular diagnosis,
that type of cancer.
Then I was quite worried
when he said,
"Oh, this was devised
in the '70s."
And I said, "What, it's not
been changed since the '70s?"
And he said, "Oh, well, yeah,
slightly, you know,
but fundamentally, because
kids' cancer is quite rare,
not much research gets done,"
which I find quite worrying,
because you'd hope
that with medical advances,
things would have
changed slightly.
He is the single worst case
of chemo-induced nausea
that they've ever seen.
Literally, we've tried
everything that they have
on their list of options.
We've tried everything.
And then there was
the marijuana.
And marijuana's the only thing
that's really...
I mean, it doesn't work
all the time,
but when it works,
it really, really works.
Then I started reading
about cannabis oil
and the anti-tumor
properties of it,
and I thought, "Well, if we're
using it to treat the symptoms,
we might as well give him
the anti-tumor dose
at the same time."
It's all about supporting
the side effects
and helping the chemo
to do its job
of getting rid of the cancer.
They're the two main things
that I'm trying to do with this.
When we first came
here, I was kind of clueless.
I had no idea what
pediatric oncology meant.
So that was terrifying.
Even though I've done this
like more than 100 times,
I still get a little afraid
of the needle.
Hello.
Come on in, A.J.
- Hi, Rosemary.
- Hi. How are you?
Tired, but good.
How are you doing?
Good. Thank you.
That's good.
We're gonna count
one to three. Ready?
Yeah. And then "three's"
when you put it in, like always?
One, two, three.
A.J.'s 17 years old now.
We first found out
that he had cancer... He was 13?
- Mm-hmm.
- He was 13 years old.
We found out that it was
osteosarcoma cancer...
Bone cancer.
By the time that they caught it,
he was already stage IV.
I believe it was
his second chemo,
his lungs collapsed,
because the cancer had spread
to his lungs,
also being stage IV.
That trip was like six,
eight weeks solid
in the hospital, that she lived
in the hospital with him.
It came back again, and
it was basically in his spine.
I think they took out
two, three, and four
and then put a steel cage in.
And they removed his ribs.
And then they
removed some of his ribs
where it was attached to,
I think one or two on each side?
- Two on each side.
- Two on each side.
Since my hand has kind of
been messed up
after one of the surgeries
on my back...
They had to sever
some of the nerves,
and those nerves
were going to my hand.
So, my fire button
used to be my mouse 1.
But I changed it to looking into
my dinosaur's inventory instead.
Month and a half
after the surgery,
he was sick.
He didn't feel good.
They found over 20 tumors
in his chest.
It was very bleak at that point,
and A.J. does not know
how bleak it was.
We've never told him that.
He's a 17-year-old kid.
He needs to concentrate
on getting better.
Bronto is down for the count.
Hey, survival of the fittest.
This is the raw oil form
that we get when we buy it.
When we started using
it, we had to get a permit,
and then we could start actually
getting it from the dealer,
I guess is the right term...
Distributor?
I'm not sure
what the correct term is
to not make it look bad
or sound bad.
Sheila and A.J. get out
and go upstairs,
and I'm driving the truck
in Beverly Hills,
circling the parking lot,
trying to find a place to park.
I can't. I can't even find
a place to park.
She gets in the truck.
A.J. gets in the truck,
and she's got
this little, teeny bag
and I'm like,
"Okay, so, what was it?"
And she's crying,
and she's like,
"I wish you could
have been there
because of all these questions."
And I'm like, "Okay, so,
I'm curious.
What is this stuff? What is it?
What is it,
and how much did we spend?"
- Yeah.
- And so she pulls out
these two little syringes
that are like 10 grams
or 10 milliliters.
It's supposedly all the same
or something like that.
And there's two of them.
And she goes,
"This was $1,010 for those two."
And I'm like
It's our son. What do you do?
- Hi, Tracy.
- Hi.
- So nice to meet you.
- So nice to meet you.
Thank you so much
for coming all this way.
Oh, honey, it's my pleasure.
- This is Sophie.
- Hi, Sophie.
We just got her up from her nap.
Yeah, she's still waking up.
Ohh!
- Oh, she is.
- Yeah, she's quite
- the special little baby.
- She's always been that way.
Neither one of us could imagine
putting our tiny,
little baby through chemo.
And the day that we decided
to not do chemo
was the day that I felt like
I could breathe again,
and I'm sure
he would say the same.
- Oh, yeah.
- It's just so counterintuitive
- to do it.
- Ugh.
We got the scans,
said it was
an optic pathway glioma.
Here's the core of the mass
sitting right there
on the optic cross.
These are excellent pictures.
Here. Oh, and
this is only one of them.
And then, here.
This one is of her spine.
Her spine's totally clear,
so it has not metastasized
or spread in any way.
'Cause that's the most natural,
normal place for it to go.
Yeah, she has none of that.
Okay.
Let me just mention this.
I don't have medical training.
I don't claim to have
medical training.
I just have something
that I feel is more important,
and that's experience.
We're gonna have to experiment.
There might be times
when, as we're figuring out
what her dose is,
we might go,
"Oh, okay, that's too much."
It can't hurt her.
If it is too much,
all it's gonna take
is the hours of it
getting out of her system.
System. And that's
what we love so much about this
is that she's not
gonna be suffering.
She's not gonna be in pain.
We don't have
to watch her deteriorate.
- She's perfect health-wise.
- Yeah.
She's had one cold
in nine months,
and that's 'cause
Daddy gave it to her.
Except for that damn cancer.
Except for that huge mass
in her brain.
- Except for that mass.
- That's the only thing, yeah.
So, literally,
1,000 stars had to align
for us to finally
change our mind on cannabis.
That was the only thing that
we just completely dismissed
and refused to research,
because we just thought
it was so ridiculous.
We looked at everything else
but that.
And it was all from Facebook.
One of those mommies said,
"Look, there's a lot
of legitimate science
going on around it."
So we started really looking
at this positive research
on cannabis.
And I said, "Honey,
this could be it."
So, how do we...?
For the first time, I'll just
go ahead and do it, okay?
Okay, sure.
Now, I'm giving her
a tiny, tiny amount
- this first time, okay?
- Okay.
'Cause she's never
been exposed to this.
And then you draw back on this
so it doesn't keep pouring out.
- Okay.
- Okay?
Here, let Mama.
Look at Mama. Oh, here we go.
- Yay!
- Good girl. High-five.
- Yay!
- Yay! High-five! High-five!
- It's okay!
- Good job, honey!
Will she feel any of the THC,
- or is that CBD gonna counter?
- She may. We won't know
- until she...
- Till she... Till she...
- Everybody's different.
- Yeah.
If she has her breakfast
at 10:30,
then you're not
gonna be giving her this
- until probably 11:30 or so.
- Right.
And then we don't have time
to get three doses in.
- Okay.
- So let's start out at two doses
- and see how she does.
- We can wake her up earlier.
I know. I know. But let's do
as little to disrupt your day.
- Okay.
- Two is gonna be fine.
It's not gonna be the...
I know how it...
I've come to learn
over the years
that we're not that powerful.
We can do the best we can.
We can, you know, whatever,
but whatever's gonna happen
is gonna happen.
You know, we're just
not that powerful.
I just want
to do what's best for her.
I know. And I know,
and I understand that.
And you're a wonderful,
wonderful mother,
and you're doing an amazing job.
Thank you.
So, for now, let's just start
with two a day.
Okay.
Well, we're awfully happy
to be able to help
- and be part of her journey.
- Oh, we're happy to have you.
- We really, truly are.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my gosh.
- We cannot tell you
how much this means to us.
Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, yes.
- Let's put her to sleep.
- You want to go lay...
You want to go
night-night, baba?
- Want to go night-night?
- Want to go night-night?
Mommy get you some milk ready.
- "Actually...
- Sophie,
we're gonna get you better.
...it's a little bit
past my nap."
You're gonna live a long life.
This is ground up like
a medium-ground coffee grind.
It's what we've found
works out the best.
- Better with no bubbles.
- Kind of looks like...
Completely decarboxylated.
All the air...
I went in for
a pretty routine surgery.
When I got out,
I had hospital-acquired
spinal meningitis.
They sent me home
from the hospital
on fentanyl patches, morphine,
all kinds of horrible drugs
and basically said, "Here,
this is the rest of your life."
I'd gone from being
this incredibly vibrant,
can-do, can-do-anything person
to, "I'm the one
sitting there watching
while everybody else
is living their life,
and I'm doing nothing."
I identify as a Dallas girl,
as a Texan in a lot of ways,
a Jewish Texan,
which is even weirder.
I never liked cannabis.
I was one of those people
that smoked pot a few times
and was like, "Eh, I don't like
the way it makes me feel."
On the other hand,
I had to do something,
because life was becoming
less worthwhile living
day by day.
Oh, it's gorgeous.
Okay.
Be careful with that water while
I'm over here with the weed.
- You know how I feel about that.
- All done.
It's done. There's
not even a dose left in that.
Okay. Want to taste it?
Ohh. It's gorgeous.
Purple Urkle.
What I found was no consistency,
no predictability,
certainly nothing that
remotely resembled medicine.
So, as a process engineer,
I'm gonna have to do it myself.
We learned that
we had to activate it first
or decarboxylate it,
and then you can cook that
into an oil base.
And so we went in the cookbook
and tried to find the recipe
with the most oil in it.
The first thing I made
was my Aunt Zelda's carrot cake.
I can gauge how strong I made it
by how much of regular oil
versus infused oil I put in it.
Then we would weigh the piece
and know exactly
what the dose was
in each and every piece.
And that's called medicine.
What's happened
just from having the cannabis
as far as improving my health
has just been miraculous.
Hey, Nance. Mara here.
I just wanted to let you know...
I know you've got the 0.054
capsules of the Cannatonic.
If there's any way you can
back off a little bit
on the morphine and oxycodone,
that would be really great.
I have to make up the medicine
for Linda.
Got Marie.
The way I manage this
is pretty much
with my hair on fire
all the time.
Unfortunately,
it's just Stewart and me.
The biggest problem
with cannabis
is that everybody has such
a different tolerance for it
that the biggest problem
is dosing.
And that's why we're
dosing specialists.
Now, what do you recommend
for Linda for her cancer?
She's at stage IV.
It's in both lungs now.
It's all through her abdomen.
So we really have to get
aggressive at this point.
- Mm-hmm.
- But she doesn't want to have
that feeling of that "stoniness"
with the high THC.
I was thinking about putting her
on the Williams Wonder
and then cutting it
with the Cannatonic.
That's a good plan.
Okay.
Marie.
As many people as we can help,
I mean, we just can't say no.
I mean, how can you say no
to a needy person?
I mean, how can we
send them somewhere
where they're just gonna get
bad product or bad information?
The whole protocol's gonna be
about a pound,
which is like $1,200
is about what we pay for it.
And we just pass that on to you,
and then we cover the overhead.
Well, how did you find us?
Google!
I didn't even know
we were on Google.
Take care. Help's on the way.
That looks great.
Seizure reduction went from 30%
- to 70% seizure reduction.
- Wow.
I've been a physician
now for 24 years.
I made the change from pediatric
ER to cannabis practice
because I knew someone
who was using medical cannabis
who was sick.
And seeing her do so well
with this, I thought,
"Wow, here I am, a doctor,
and I don't even have an opinion
'cause I don't know."
So that's kind of where, then,
I started that quest
for knowledge to make myself
a person who understands this
and then can help
other people understand it.
Good morning, everybody, and
thank you for getting up early
to come here and hear me speak.
I have seen things
that we can call miracles,
and I think it's really
important to understand
that to a family
that's suffering,
it feels like a miracle,
but it's really just science,
and there's no reason
to be afraid of it
and there's no reason
that this is not an option
for everyone.
In 1988, researchers discovered
living things... humans...
Have cannabinoid receptors
in their brains.
Most people
are familiar with dopamine,
serotonin, norepinephrine...
Classical neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals
that allow neurons
to talk to each other.
When neuron "A"
talks to neuron "B,"
it sends a chemical messenger
across the synapse,
and that binds to receptors
at neuron "B,"
and then that turns
into electricity.
What we've discovered
is that there's...
Part of that system is governed
by cannabinoid compounds.
These are just molecules
that we have
that bind to these
specific receptors.
And they seem to play a role
in smoothing out
the whole communication process.
It seems to be so important
that a group at NIH
recently published a review
and said that
the endocannabinoid system
is involved in essentially
all human diseases.
Now, that's a very strong
statement. Very strong.
Those receptors are not there
for the cannabis plant,
but it turns out that
the cannabis plant compounds
called cannabinoids
work at those receptors.
So, when you take
a cannabinoid in from outside
by smoking or vaporizing
or eating or a pharmaceutical,
you are somehow tinkering
with that system
and adjusting the way
in which those nerves
and muscles
and communications happen.
I often joke around
with my patients,
it's not magic fairy dust.
It's not voodoo.
There are chemical compounds
in the plant
that interact with the cells
in our brains
and in our bodies
and have certain reactions.
It's the same
as every other drug.
It just came from a plant.
I, as an herbalist,
felt duped, felt lied to
'cause I tell people about
magnificent herbs all the time.
Cannabis was just off-limits.
I mean, I was in that
culture of it.
I thought it was
this poisonous weed.
I have nine children,
and I have seen a lot
of people with cancer.
These experiences are just
too overwhelming to ignore.
I looked at my books and said,
"There has to be
cannabis in here.
I've never looked for it."
And it was everywhere.
They start out with,
"This is so well-known
to every good housewife
in the country
that I shall not need
to write a description of it."
And then it goes down
to tell you,
including how to use the roots.
And this book is...
This book is 1805.
All of these tabs
are references to cannabis
and how to use cannabis.
We lost this!
This is a tool we really need,
and we're not too stupid
to do it.
We're not too stupid
to handle this plant.
My father said to me, "You know,
when I was at the University
of Minnesota
School of Pharmacy in 1928,
one of the assignments we had
was to make tincture cannabis.
And we had to be very careful,
because the alcohol
was illegal."
I thought,
"Well, how quaint, you know,
but we don't
use plants anymore."
And it probably took me
a good 15 or 20 years
to really appreciate that
this stuff still was medicine.
It was part of
the pharmacopeia, you know,
well into the 20th century.
It was a frequently
prescribed medication...
Not to smoke it,
but in its tinctures, et cetera.
And if you look at, then, why
and how it was criminalized,
really, the key factor
was the role
of racism and xenophobia,
anti-Mexican sentiment.
People often point their finger
at Harry Anslinger,
who was the founder,
the first head of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics.
But, in fact,
he didn't start off
being an anti-marijuana
ideologue.
It was really
as the '30s progressed
that he began to see the
political opportunity in this.
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937
is basically a prohibition law.
The American Medical Association
told Congress in 1937,
"We sent a representative
and said
that you should not
ban this substance,
because substantial medical uses
and developments
will be neglected, and also,
there's things that we're
already using this for
that we don't have
substitutes for."
Is this a medicine?
Cannabis has been a medicine
for 3,000 years.
It only hasn't been a medicine
in this country for 70 years.
I think it's a medicine.
It's 70 years of propaganda that
you're trying to fight against,
and that's not something
that's gonna change overnight.
I mean, honestly, you know,
a lot of people
look at me and say, "Really?
You would have given your
7-year-old child marijuana?"
And with what I know now,
absolutely.
But if you'd have asked me
that same question
four, five years ago,
I probably would have been
in that skeptical camp.
You know, unfortunately,
the parents know more about this
than the doctors do, because
when you become so desperate
that you're willing
to try anything, you learn.
And if I cry, I apologize,
but a day before
my son passed away,
I prayed to God to take him,
because the suffering
was just too bad.
And if I can help one parent,
just one,
not make that prayer
of desperation,
that's what my goal is
in life now.
Here's her bottle.
Give Mama a kiss.
Say, "Nap time. I'll see you...
I'll see you in an hour."
This is her cannabis oil regimen
that we have right now.
"CT" stands for the Cannatonic.
We give her the size
of about 1/2 grain of rice
two times a day.
So, this is what Sophie
looks like
when she starts to feel
the effects of her medicine.
She's not moving around as much,
and she's a little sleepy-faced,
but this is it.
It is day eight
since we first started
giving her the cannabis oil.
She, as of today, is starting
to get two different oils.
So, considering
that a little bit of sleepiness
is all we're seeing
as a side effect,
I'd say this has definitely been
a much better alternative
to the chemo thus far.
All right, let's see
if we can get her to take it.
Come on, honey.
Good girl.
There you go.
We just put a little drop
on her pacifier.
Tiny, tiny little drop.
We're gonna give that to her
while she's sleeping.
So, we had to up
Sophie's medicine.
She's in a very good mood.
Aren't you, honey?
Are you happy right now?
She is playful
and laughing and smiling.
Yeah, I'm just glad you guys
are supporting us
holding off on the chemo.
We recognize
with this diagnosis,
you know,
there is some room here
in terms of exploring
complementary therapies.
But in general, we have
a historical standard
of care that we have.
As long as we keep that in mind,
you know...
- Absolutely.
- ...moving forward, for sure,
we definitely
can intervene at any time.
And she already has
the port device in place.
It's already there.
They all know what
our treatment plan is.
They all know
we're using the oils.
They've had nothing
negative to say.
They haven't thought
in any way, shape, or form
we're being bad parents
or doing anything
that is harmful to our child
in any way, which is fantastic,
because we wouldn't do it if
our doctors didn't support us.
He did bring up, you know,
the "chemo" word,
which, yeah, I even hate
talking about it.
We still believe in our hearts
that this is gonna work.
I mean, she's thriving
right now.
Her eye's getting better,
and I don't know
if it means anything,
and Dr. Cheng couldn't tell us
if it means anything,
because you don't know until
you actually do the MRI scan.
If I looked at it
from a logical standpoint,
as the tumor gets smaller
and releases pressure,
the eye shakes less.
That, to me,
is logical thinking.
- Right.
- So I'm gonna go with logic
and say that the tumor's
already getting smaller.
That's what I'm gonna go with.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, A.J. has seen a doctor.
He has to see the doctor so
he can get some more medicine.
If you're good... If we good,
we're gonna go
get some chocolate,
and Dad gonna get some.
Let me check
your eyeballs. Look at my nose.
Okay, now, can you follow
the light with your eyes?
Don't move your head.
Look up.
We went to the pediatricians.
- Okay.
- They evaluated him,
and that's when she sent us
to the ER
and said that we probably
would not return home,
because she realized
it was serious.
Right, so they
diagnosed it based on
what they saw on the CAT scan
- and the MRI, right?
- Yes, ma'am.
And then what did they tell you?
What they
normally do is radiation.
It had to be done,
like, right away,
because he was already
to the point
where he couldn't swallow
by the time we...
Like, the first day
of being in the hospital.
And what did they
tell you his prognosis is?
Well, they suspect
six to nine months of life.
After that, then it would be
the end for him.
So, they shrunk it to
give him more quality of life.
- Right. Yes, ma'am.
- Right. Okay.
And they had
nothing more to offer.
That's so scary.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It is.
In the state of California,
my job as a medical
cannabis consultant
is to determine whether or not
A.J. qualifies based on the law
for medical cannabis,
and he does, okay?
So you're gonna...
I'm gonna get you the letter.
Everybody talks about a card.
It's not a card.
It's a letter.
And in that letter, I make
the statement that he qualifies
and that I'm approving him
to use it, okay?
You've probably heard stories
of some of the other patients
that have had brain tumors
that are responding
to high-dose cannabis oil.
- Yes, ma'am.
- There are no guarantees,
because I have to tell you
there's no clinical trials.
There's no...
"Oh, I have had 10 kids
with the same tumor,
and we studied them,
and half of them got placebo,
and half of them"...
It just doesn't exist.
He's still within two months
of being diagnosed.
- Right.
- It's still pretty early, right,
even though it's
a fairly aggressive tumor.
- Right.
- You're not coming here
saying, you know, "We have...
You know,
they gave us two weeks."
You have some time here,
which is really good.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- There are some side effects.
- Okay.
They're not like
side effects of chemo,
- which are devastating.
- Right. Right.
It's, to me, nothing to be
afraid of at this point, right,
because for him,
I mean, you know,
not to be dramatic about it,
but it's life-and-death.
I mean, you're not getting
any other options here.
And as a mom myself,
I would do it in a heartbeat
knowing what I know
and seeing what I've seen.
- Okay?
- Okay. Yes, ma'am.
What kind of medicine
are we giving her?
Um, turmeric.
Turmeric? Mm.
Yeah. She doesn't care
if it's spicy.
She's used to it.
Oh, what a brave girl.
She's brave.
And then, what else
do you give her?
I give her black medicine.
What do you give
the black medicine on?
Ice cream.
Ice cream?
What kind of ice cream?
The good kind.
Watch her take
her black medicine.
You're gonna give
your baby black meds?
Mm-hmm.
What does that do?
Make the cancer go away.
I was deathly afraid
when I realized we were
on the oncology ward.
Like, I remember them saying,
"You have to wash your hands
before and after you leave the
room because we're in oncology.
Oncology." And I was like...
It was like 4:00 in the morning.
I'm like, "What does
oncology mean?
I'm sorry if I'm... Like,
I don't know what this means."
And she's like,
"This is the cancer"...
And then that's when it hit me
that my daughter,
like, literally had cancer.
They sat me down. They're like,
"This is a 97% curable rate.
She's going to finish
this treatment.
She will go on
to live a long, healthy life.
The side effects
are very minimal.
Like, you have nothing
to worry about it.
Just, like, trust us.
We'll get you through this.
She has the best cancer
that you can have."
So we really did trust them.
She went through
her six months of chemotherapy,
and then we went about
four months out of treatment
without any evidence
of the disease.
I remember I was at work,
and I got a call from Jaclyn
saying that, you know,
she was breathing weird.
Something wasn't right.
So we took her
in the emergency room,
and she was diagnosed with
stage IV complete metastasis.
Her right lung was covered
top to bottom with cancer.
This time, she would have
four medications.
You have to have two new ones,
because, as everyone knows,
cancer cells...
They become resilient
to chemotherapy.
So you have to up it.
It has to be stronger.
This one was much more
aggressive and harsh,
and right away,
I mean, we could see her.
I mean, just, all the life
that was in her was gone.
She was 3 1/2
and 19 pounds.
Yeah. We didn't know
if she would survive it.
It wasn't looking very good
for her,
and the hospital
could not guarantee
her long-term survival.
And so we were able
to opt out of treatment,
which is very rare.
It was an unpopular decision.
I personally did not believe
she was gonna survive
the next round of chemotherapy.
I think my worst fear
was obviously losing my daughter
at home at my own hand.
My uncle told us
about the cannabis oil.
He gave me some to try.
Yeah, I was...
I thought it was...
I got liquid gold.
I was like, "Let's go."
So, three months
after we opted out,
we did a scan,
and the 4.2 was down
to 1.62 millimeters.
And the one that was
slightly over 1 millimeter
was completely gone.
Of course, we believe that
it was definitely the cannabis.
Wow! Can you give him besos?
I can honestly tell you
here right now
that my daughter
would not be alive today
if we had not done it.
I believe 100% that she is here
because of that,
because of cannabinoids
and because of our faith in God.
I don't doubt that
it's definitely cannabis oil,
but we just don't know
what's in it.
I mean, one of the problems
with it not being regulated
and it not being controlled
is you don't know what you...
I mean, you just have to trust
that the people
that you're getting it from
are doing it the right way.
And I was just a bit concerned
because when I opened this,
it smelled kind of solvent-y.
But they said to leave it out
to breathe.
But it would be interesting
to know
what the components
of this were.
It shouldn't be like that,
should it?
There should be a place
where you can go to
and you can get advice.
You can get it tailored
to their treatment, tailored
to, "This one at night.
This one in the morning."
It should be available,
and it just isn't.
And that's why we're all
floundering in the dark, really.
Here you go, sweetie.
- So sorry.
- Hey! It's okay!
- Are you Tracy?
- Yes, nice to meet you.
- Lovely to meet you.
- Come on in.
So sorry it's taken me
so long to get here.
- This is Dr. Raber.
- Hi, Angela.
- You can call me Jeff.
- Heard lots about you. All good.
My job is public
health and safety...
To make sure
there's nothing here
like solvents or pesticides
or, you know,
microbiological contaminants
that could cause harm
in those fashions.
We've been kind of doing it
in the dark, really.
So I'll be really grateful
to hear your...
I mean, in the information age,
you can get a lot of bad
information and some good info.
Well, that's the problem, yeah.
That, to me...
It's a little bit solvent-y,
but it's not too bad.
Do you think
that's horribly solvent-y?
That smells really... I mean,
you can let Jeff smell it,
but it smells
very solvent-y to me.
Yeah, there's something.
Something different.
Well, there's definitely
a little alcohol,
but it smells
like rubbing alcohol.
- Yeah.
- Smell that one.
- Not like ethanol.
- That one's worse. Try that one.
That one stinks.
That one I thought
wasn't too bad.
No, that's rubbing alcohol.
That's isopropanol.
You should not be eating that.
No, that's no good.
- And they do use that.
- Oh, that is rubbing alcohol.
It's rubbing alcohol.
That's not ethanol. No.
That's not food-grade alcohol.
That smells like...
That smells like the alcohol...
- And you're giving him... Oh.
- No, not that one. No.
I don't know if you've given him
tremendously large amounts
that you need to be concerned
about complete damage,
but it will, you know,
be more difficult
on the liver to metabolize that,
and it could cause damage
to certain cells.
When they're on chemo, and
they're on other medications,
the liver's already on...
You know, it's pretty busy.
So we don't want
to make it worse.
Worse. Chico's
not gonna... He's okay.
Okay.
And here's the other travesty...
$3,000.
- $3,300.
- $3,000...
For those three tiny,
little pots.
That's disturbing.
- I know.
- A lot.
The hardest part of what we do,
'cause I always have to be
the disseminator of bad news...
If the government
will let us start testing it
for medicinal purposes,
that will help, as well,
because right now,
and correct me if I'm wrong,
they're only allowing
tests to happen
that show how it can hurt you,
not how it can help you.
I believe it was,
yeah, 6% of the studies
are currently funded
for good purposes,
and 94% are looking
at bad purposes.
Yeah.
The U.S. National
Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA,
funds the vast majority
of drug-abuse research
not just in the United States,
but in the world.
The way they encourage
scientists and researchers
was all about trying
to identify harms.
Congress, in 1970,
placed marijuana
in the Schedule I category...
High potential for abuse,
no medical use in treatment.
Marijuana's in the same category
with heroin and LSD.
Cocaine is in a lower
category... Schedule II...
Because it has
"legitimate medical uses"
in some limited areas.
Unfortunately,
we still have this block
of the Schedule I status.
So the federal government
is telling us
there's not enough research
on cannabis to de-schedule it
from Schedule I,
and then they're saying,
"But you can't do research
because it's Schedule I."
So it's put us in
this really horrible position.
The DEA's blocking
recognition of this in science
on marijuana's medical efficacy,
and you just can't
be in the dark about that
and say there's no currently
accepted medical use
in treatment
in the United States
and no standard for safety.
That's a lie.
The first evidence that cannabis
may have anti-cancer activity
actually came from our National
Cancer Institute in 1974.
But mysteriously, those lines
of investigation disappeared.
I started downloading studies
like five years ago.
There were like 450 just
on reference breast cancer.
And now there's
maybe 30 on there.
Where'd all those go?
Where'd they go?
Why'd they go off pubmed. Gov?
Why is the government
taking those studies off?
Luckily, there's research
going on in other countries
that hopefully we'll be able
to use to make a case
to de-schedule marijuana
in the United States.
There are no
prescriptions in America.
There's recommendations.
Doctors aren't allowed
to prescribe cannabis.
They're allowed to recommend it.
In Israel, every one of the
patients is prescribed cannabis.
It's a federal license.
And because
it's a federal license,
the growers grow federally.
The patients use federally.
So research that's overseen
by the federal government
is then being conducted.
So, you don't have that block.
So, the research started here
in the '60s.
We were gifted
with Professor Mechoulum.
He isolated the cannabinoid THC.
How come morphine
had been isolated
from opium 150 years previously,
and cocaine had been isolated
from coca leaves
100 years previously,
and the active compound
in cannabis
had never been isolated
in pure form?
It's structure was unknown,
so it was impossible
to do any biological work.
In science,
Israel is
a very liberal country.
While in the U.S., it was very
difficult to do cannabis work,
here we had absolutely
no problems.
Dedi is the epitome of science,
the "go by the book,"
"study for your eight PhDs,"
and "work on curing cancer"
type of guy
working with cannabis,
which is unheard of today.
When you put cannabis
extract, or THC and CBD,
which are the main cannabinoids
in the extract,
it can really kill the cancer
in a way we call apoptosis.
Actually,
the cells commit suicide.
Every cells in our body
have, like, a checkpoint
that they are checking
if there is a problem.
And if there is a problem,
they will kill themselves.
They will commit suicide.
So what we see that cannabis
is giving the cancer cells back
this ability that they lost.
In the first row, we can see
colon cancer cell lines
growing in the black.
Every dots like this,
this is cells.
When we're adding cannabis
strain number 3, CB3,
we see all the cells
are dying here...
100% of the cells dying here.
What is even more interesting
in this image...
When we are growing colon cells
which are not cancer cells,
and we're adding
strain number 3,
nothing has happened, okay?
When we're adding
the same strain
to the colon cancer cells,
they died.
When we're adding it to the
normal cells, they're not dying.
It's not affecting them.
The same thing
with strain number 4.
In this image,
it's very important
we see we're adding
strain number 3 and 4
that kill the colon cancer
and the breast cancer.
Here, it's not affecting
the prostate cancer.
So it's very important
to understand
which materials we have
in these strains,
what are the pattern of
cannabinoids interrupting there,
and why its affecting one cancer
and not the other.
We've been in the field
of cannabis for about 20 years.
We started to do
experiments with cancer cells,
and we were expecting
other results.
We were doing metabolic studies,
and what we saw was something
completely unexpected.
We were killing cancer cells.
So, these are
one of the first experiments
we performed with animals.
We treated
immune-deficient mice.
So, we injected glioblastoma
human cells underneath the skin,
and we generated these tumors.
And half of the animals
were treated with cannabinoids,
in this case with THC,
and the other half received
no cannabinoid treatment.
The tumors of these animals
that were not treated
with cannabinoids
are way bigger
than these other tumors.
More recently, we have been
working on breast cancer.
And here we represent
tumor volume,
how big the tumors are,
as time passes.
And this is how tumors
that are not treated
with cannabinoids behave.
They grew. And this is
the THC-treated population.
As you can see, they have less
metastasis in the lungs,
and they have less tumors per
animal than the control group.
So it works pretty well.
We are also realistic,
and we know
that there are many therapies
that have worked finely in mice,
and then they fail
when they go to humans.
Of course, we need robust
clinical trials to get to know,
finally, at last,
whether cannabinoids can be
or not on a tumor
against imprecise patients
or populations.
Good morning, Sophie.
Hi, my love.
Want to turn that light on,
honey?
Oh, big stretch.
Good morning, honey.
So, today is the big day.
Today is the first scans
that we're gonna be getting
to see if what we're doing
is working.
You're gonna get
a nice nap, Sophie.
Yeah, baby doll.
You're gonna get to go to sleep really soon.
You're gonna get a nice,
little nap, baby girl. Hi.
- Mixed in with this?
- No, no, no.
Just, like, on his foot,
like three little pushes,
and then following that up with,
which this is 30 units.
So, we're headed
home from scan day.
Sophie is very unhappy.
The anesthesia's making her
really super cranky,
and she's tired.
The radiologist said
that she would read them
by the end of the day today.
So we're hoping to get
information pretty quickly.
Hello?
Hi. Hold on. I'm trying
to get it on speakerphone.
- Can you hear me?
- Oh, okay.
- Hi, guys. Yeah.
- Hi.
So, I'm not sure
if you got a chance
to glance at the MRI.
Unfortunately, it does look
a little worse
than it did back in June.
So, that means
we got to start chemo ASAP.
I think our trajectory
is, unfortunately, chemo.
So, when do we have to start?
So, I think
we can try this week,
and then we can spend
some time in the office
and go over everything again.
Fuck!
It's not smaller.
It's not stable.
And that means chemo...
which is just...
It's, like, really, really,
really hard to imagine
what that's gonna be like.
Here's the good news.
We're very, very far away
from where we want to be.
It's not like we had her
on this really high dose,
- and it didn't work.
- Right.
We're gonna have
to play around with it
till we find how Sophie's
most comfortable with it.
We're 100% gonna keep using
the cannabis moving forward.
You know, now we're gonna
increase her,
not only just because
I believe it will work
alongside the chemo,
but it will also counteract
the side effects of the chemo.
I don't think that cannabis
has failed us.
I think that we don't
have her dose right.
We're in uncharted waters.
We're lab rats.
- You must be Mara.
- I am Mara.
- Hello, Angela.
- Thank you for coming.
Oh, my pleasure!
Nice to meet you in person.
- Yeah.
- Doctors will call us...
We had one doctor that
called me a cannabis doula.
You know, and, like,
I think Jeff called me,
like, a cannabis midwife.
- Oh, wow.
- Take a smell.
Oh, I don't even...
I just... can just see it,
first of all, the thinness.
They did say
you have to let it breathe.
Who said?
The person
that I bought it from.
This is alcohol. This is just
pure alcohol in here
with a little bit
of cannabis diluted in it.
Okay, here's what I brought.
For example,
this is the high-THC.
- Right.
- This is the one
- that Stewart made.
- Is that labeled?
Everything's labeled.
Can you put your feet down
or no? No?
Where's the pain the most?
In my stomach,
- on my head.
- In your head?
This oil that we made
is a little... is different.
- It's a little different.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's stronger.
- Mm-hmm.
And it doesn't have
all that alcohol in it.
That alcohol could be
burning your stomach, too.
Mm-hmm.
So, any questions you have?
Any concerns? Any anything?
But I want to know
all the adjectives,
all the adverbs
how you're feeling...
Any anything... anything
that doesn't seem right
or whatever.
And if this strain doesn't work
it, we'll try another strain.
- Mm-hmm.
- There's 4,500 strains,
and we'll find one that helps.
Wow.
We have probably
the most paperwork of anyone
I know, of any collective.
We tell people right off the bat
we're collecting their data.
We are expecting to use the data
to help find solutions
for diseases
and for... you know, to help
to use it for other people.
It's all just experimentation
at this point.
- Okay.
- All right.
Is that better?
You've had a lot on your plate
- over the last couple of weeks.
- Yes, ma'am.
I'm here to answer
any questions you have
and walk you through
what we're gonna do.
One of the syringes
I sent you was Hindu Kush.
- Okay.
- And the other one
is something called Yummy.
Okay, I see now.
And the Yummy is
a two-to-one CBD to THC.
So, you said that the Yummy
is higher in CBD.
- Am I hearing you right?
- Yes.
Okay.
The Hindu Kush is a high THC.
And I'm not sure
which one is gonna do better.
After an hour, maybe two hours,
just see how he does.
I mean, you're his mom and dad.
- You guys are...
- Right.
- You know your son.
- Right.
You don't ever have to worry
about him taking too much,
and, in a matter of hours,
it'll be over.
- Okay.
- There's nothing that you do
to screw it up other than
- to not give him his medicine.
- Okay.
Okay, that's what
I wanted to hear.
- That makes me feel better.
- Okay.
- You cannot hurt him.
- Yes.
He would have to probably take
a pound of oil at once.
The body cannot overdose
on cannabis.
Little bit.
That's all you got to take.
- Do I put it on his tongue?
- Under his tongue.
Under your tongue.
Wait, you... Just lick it off.
Lick it off. Lick it off.
Lick it off.
How'd that taste?
A little good.
- Okay.
- Okay. A little good. Yeah.
All right.
Good job, A.J.
- Go ahead and have some fun.
- Let's have some fun.
Hey!
Dad ready to have some fun, too.
Okay!
We just so happened to have
a couple of salsa bottles,
and so I threw
the salsa away, and...
Well, we ate some of it,
but I commandeered the jars.
And the Tostitos,
I put the THC oil in
because I thought "T" and "T."
And then there wasn't any
cannabis that began with an "M."
Oh, I suppose I should have said
"marijuana," shouldn't I?
But the CBD's in the other one.
But I actually did
label them wrongly.
Anyway, we've been playing
with them a little bit,
because we're trying
to get him to eat,
and THC promotes appetite,
and CBD stops your appetite.
So we've been messing
with the proportions.
But we've kind of stuck
to two to three now.
Three THC, two CBD.
You woke up giggling
yesterday morning, didn't you?
And Mara was very pleased.
And so how do you feel now?
- Good.
- You look good.
Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Right on. Well, that's good.
Chico, I just want to see how
it feels, okay, if it's ready.
I left a little extra time
on it.
Be right back.
I'm gonna get you a mask, okay?
- Where's your ear, Chico?
- Here.
Missing.
There we go.
I was gonna say
he likes digging his nails in.
Squeeze me or dig into me
as hard as you want to.
Okay, I just want to find it.
I know.
One, two, three.
There you go. Perfect.
Perfect, perfect, perfect.
There you go.
- There you go. There you go.
- It's done. It's already done.
It's over.
It's all done.
I'm done. I'm done.
That's it. It's all over.
You did fantastic.
It's all done. It's all done.
Breathe, Chico. It's all done.
- See?
- Blow.
Whole bag of...
Chico had a really horrible,
harsh chemotherapy regime.
It was very punishing,
and he had 28
daily radiation sessions
over, like, a five-
or six-week period.
He was probably in hospital more
days than he wasn't in hospital.
Luckily, we're in a legal state.
It would have caused way,
way more stress to try
and do this illegally and behind
the backs of the doctors.
At least everything
was above-board.
Everything was up-front.
I just find it absolutely
staggering to accept
that in this day and age,
with the billions of dollars
that's spent on cancer research,
the medicine
that we were relying on
is made in somebody's kitchen.
All good?
I just want to get you home
and get you back,
you know, normal.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm.
Ball.
Book.
So, I've already
started the dose.
She gets a much larger dose now.
She's almost at a gram a day,
a one-to-one ratio
of CBD to THC.
So we got her up
to the cancer-killing dose.
She's completely
acclimated to it,
has no side effects,
no sleepiness.
You would never know
she's taken anything.
Baby... Ohh,
you can do it, honey!
- Yeah, you got it!
- Come see Mama!
- You got it!
- Yeah!
Whoo!
Oh! Good job, honey!
You okay, pumpkin pie?
We went in, and they said,
you know, "This tumor's had
such a growth spurt
that we need to do a biopsy,
and we need to make sure that
this isn't a high-grade glioma."
So then we had to schedule
brain surgery.
And luckily,
all the tissue samples
came back low-grade.
She hasn't had
the best day today.
We're gonna have to do
some I.V. fluids,
and she's not drinking
a whole lot,
which is all part of the chemo.
We're on day five.
It's kind of weird
that it's so delayed,
but she's not been doing
too bad overall.
Here, baby. Open.
Mmm. Big bite.
Yay! Good girl!
There she goes!
You ready for some
amazing results?
This'll be the second scan
since we started chemo
and have been
at high doses of cannabis.
So now we just wait.
We wait for the good news,
don't we, baby?
She's hoarse from them putting
the tube down her throat.
We just got the call!
There is some cell death!
The tumor is actually dying
in certain areas.
There's no new growth.
And... And... It's...
They said that they would like
to be able to take credit
for it all, but they just
don't know if they can.
I'm just thrilled.
This is the most amazing news
we could have ever gotten.
She's gonna be okay.
She's gonna be okay!
She's gonna be okay.
She's gonna be okay. Oh, my God.
I mean, we still have a battle
ahead of us.
We're still gonna
have to do chemo,
but I can actually see
the future.
I can see
walking little Sophie down the aisle
and... and, you know, taking her
to her first dance recital
and all those things
that you want to do.
It's a good feeling.
It's 5 milligrams of Oxy, okay?
He was addicted to opiates.
He had to have Dilaudid
when he was in the hospital
to manage the pain,
and that created
an opiate dependency.
So they put him onto methadone
to transition him off it.
And I fought and fought
and fought them
putting him on methadone for
months and months and months.
Finally, I caved in.
And I knew that if I just
managed to get him home,
I could have got him off
the opiates with oxycodone
and cannabis oil,
'cause I'd done it
so many times before.
But I caved in and agreed
to put him on methadone,
and it was a nightmare.
Your mom's here.
We're taking a pause right now.
We're taking a break.
You're okay.
Chico.
Let me get some paper.
Yeah?
Would you let a 1st
or a 2nd grader
or any child use
medical marijuana?
We do know in people
who start before the age of 15
and keep doing it
throughout their life,
even sporadically, tend to have
an impact later on in life.
They lose about 8 I.Q. points
on average.
Again, these are hard studies
to come by.
That was a study
out of the Netherlands.
How does methadone
affect the developing brain?
How does Dilaudid affect
the developing brain?
How do these heavy-duty opiates
that they prescribe willy-nilly
to children...
Nobody looks at the effects
of those types of medicines
on the developing brain,
and I can tell you for sure
that a kid who's on methadone
is way, way lower
in terms of their mental
capacity and functioning.
And the best thing we ever did
was get Chico weaned off
methadone as fast as we could,
and we did that
with the help of the oil.
We titrated the methadone down
as the oil came up.
And we saw
his mental capacity return
as the methadone went away,
even though the cannabis oil
was coming up.
That's why I'm not really
taking very seriously
the I.Q.-point argument.
But even if it's true,
frankly,
it's a small price to pay.
When we started the oil,
it was right after surgery.
He was in so much pain.
Every morning, she leaves
at 5:30 in the morning.
5:30 in the morning.
When he would wake up,
he would be crying in bed,
screaming for me.
He was in so much pain,
and I would give him
two OxyContin
at 6:00 in the morning.
Two to three hours later,
I would give him two narco.
Two to three hours later,
I would give him either Advil,
Motrin, Excedrin,
anything I could give him
to get to that next span
of giving him
two more OxyContin.
And then two more narco.
And we were doing this
around the clock
the entire time.
And he wasn't eating, and
he was vomiting all the time.
- Yes.
- But you know what's amazing
is, you know,
when she brought us home,
and she says
it's a sesame-seed size...
You know, half of...
And you look at that.
You look at what size that is.
- It's nothing.
- And I...
I looked at him and said,
"This isn't gonna work."
You know, I felt like
we wasted our money.
Hi, Monkey.
What are you doing?
Getting some orange juice.
Within three days,
he was off all the pain pills.
- He was eating.
- We... It was like...
- Wow. Amazed.
- It was like Monday
- or Tuesday...
- Amazing.
...when we started it.
By Friday, he was taking
one OxyContin all day,
and it was just like,
"Something's happening.
I don't know what,
but something's... It's good."
There's so many people out there
that could use this medicine
and where it can
improve their lives
where they are so far off
from having access.
And in the meantime,
they're just being fed
a steady stream
of pharmaceutical drugs.
And year after year,
we see the number of people
dying from accidental overdose
due to pharmaceutical drugs
get higher and higher.
It's remarkable when you look
at this explosion
of research studies coming out
about the way in which
marijuana is reducing
the problems with opioids
and other pharmaceuticals.
80% of prescription drugs
are made from opiates,
and I think, as the world
learns and understands
that it's addicted to heroin,
to opiates,
I think that the world once over
will learn how to free itself.
But right now, the science
is being blocked,
and it's being blocked
by Big Pharma
not wanting the science
to succeed.
In the big picture,
the pharmaceutical industry,
which controls
the medical community...
It's a big money-driven machine.
You have these people.
They're using morphine.
They're using fentanyl,
all these drugs
that are respiratory depressants
that, in themselves,
can accidentally
inherently kill you.
But because it's prescribed
by the hospital,
because it originates from
our pharmaceutical industry,
it's accepted by society.
And this has this reputation
for recreational use,
and it's, by technicality,
a Schedule I narcotic.
It's, you know, a little bit,
like I said, infuriating
because, you know, for us,
we're using it to save
our child's life.
Okay, Cecilia, we got to take
your black medicine, okay?
Okay.
And then get ready
all my myself again.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
You don't have
to get me ready anymore,
because I'm a big girl.
You don't have
to get me ready anymore.
So, this is Aunt Zelda's.
We use a one-to-one ratio
of THC to CBD,
which is what
most cancer patients use.
When she was very sick,
at her highest,
we were at about
$3,000 a month in oils.
Now that we're down
to a maintenance dose,
it's roughly about
$1,500 a month.
More than our rent.
So, I mean, literally,
we sold bikes, we sold...
- Everything.
- ...just whatever we could.
You know, I was very
maxed out at this point,
working as much overtime
as I could.
So I just kind of asked,
"What do you guys do on the job
when they get sick?
Because we're doing something
completely alternative.
We're not using
our insurance anymore."
So, that next day,
they got in touch
with a charitable organization
called the Fire Family
Foundation.
Up-front, they're willing to pay
for a month of supplements,
and I was a little apprehensive.
I'm like, "Um,
let me just be clear
on what we're talking
about here.
You know, we're talking
about medical marijuana.
This is cannabis."
And they were like,
"That's fine.
We know.
We're happy to do that for you."
We came up with
a plan to figure out
how we could get
some extra funds for Jim.
When he told me about the
cannabis treatment, I was like,
"You know what?
You're gonna do what it takes.
And I'm sure if it was
my daughter,
I'd probably do the same thing."
We're humble, prideful people.
I mean, I'm too humble.
You know, I'm maxed out.
There's nothing else
I can possibly do.
And if you don't reach out,
you know,
your child's not gonna
get her medication.
She's not...
She's gonna die, you know?
It's heartbreaking to see
that there's something
that can help your child,
and you can't get it.
For these parents,
I can't imagine.
I mean, we've been
in that situation,
and doors just keep getting
opened, and it's amazing,
and we're blessed beyond means
because we have our baby.
So nothing else matters.
But if you're
paying into insurance,
insurance should pay
for what you want it to go to
to help whatever
is showing success.
It's saving our babies' lives.
Kiss? Can I have a kiss?
Thank you. You're so sweet.
You're so sweet.
Now the nerves
really start kicking.
Scan-xiety.
'Cause we got to do this
every three months.
And this is gonna be
our life for a while.
Hi, Betty.
My name is Tracy Ryan.
My daughter, Sophie,
had an MRI scan today.
Would I be able
to put in a request with you
to pick up a disk
the second it's available?
Yeah, it's been finalized.
Oh, it has been?
- Yes.
- Okay.
So, you wanted
to get a disk, a CD of it?
Yes, ma'am.
I'm gonna go get them.
I always tell my husband
that it could always be worse,
and we see worse
every single day of our lives.
Everybody keeps saying,
"God only gives you
what you can handle,"
but I think that we get things
that we can't handle sometimes.
I feel like it's
my responsibility and my duty
to the world and to God
and to my child
to pass on this information
and to help people.
So I created a group
called CannaKids,
along with some other mommies
that had sick kids.
It's an amazing, amazing group,
full of wonderful women and men
and experts
and doctors and scientists.
And it's just really wonderful.
Hi, Lu.
What do the scans look like?
It shrunk!
Let me get the paper.
Lulu, it is half the size.
Oh!
It went from 2.6 to 1.7.
It is half the size.
The cystic component
now measures 1.4 centimeters,
versus 2.8 centimeters on 9/23.
It is also half the size.
That is...
Lulu, these tumors
don't shrink with chemo.
These tumors don't shrink
with chemo!
- Oh, my gosh.
- Hand on a Bible.
My doctor said, "If you can
get this tumor to half the size,
there's no way we can claim
that it was the chemo."
That's the only way.
It has to get to half the size.
Oh, here we go.
Look at these huge black holes.
That's the Zelda.
There's, like,
nothing over here anymore.
Like, this used to be
all kinds of tumor over here.
This has always been
the heavier side.
This is... Oh, my God.
That's the cyst!
That's where the cyst
used to be.
Almost gone!
I mean, it's just beautiful.
I never thought I'd be
saying that about a tumor.
I feel very, very, very hopeful.
It's working.
- Hi! We're here to see...
- Hi. You're Sophie.
- Yes, ma'am.
- Hi, Sophie!
Say hi!
Sophie, did the sleepy medicine
get you already, my Buffy?
She's like, "My cannabis
doesn't even do this to me."
- This is Tracy.
- Hello, Tracy.
It's Dr. Cheng.
So, thankfully,
Sophie continues
to make progress, okay?
- Yes!
- At 1 year of age,
chemotherapy with carboplatin
and vincristine was started,
period.
It's clear the tumor has shrunk
enormously on the chemotherapy.
We're doing a lot
of holistic approaches
along with her chemo treatment.
Have you ever seen
this much shrinkage before?
I would agree
that you wouldn't expect
to see that much shrinkage
of a tumor from chemotherapy.
I'm not sure it's
the chemotherapy.
Well, we don't think
- it's the chemotherapy.
- It might be. It might not be.
- I have no idea.
- Right.
Honey, it's almost gone. I'm
looking at all kinds of angles.
- It's almost gone.
- Really?
I'm... Yeah.
Oh, that's amazing.
Sophie, do you...
Do you want to get up?
Your chemo's done, honey!
- Your chemo's done, honey!
- Hi, sweetie!
You're done!
Sophie, Sophie, look!
Sophie, look!
Okay, there is one...
There's one?
So proud, Sophie.
I've been so proud of you.
Around three months
into doing this,
Dr. Storch looks at us and said,
"He looks like
he's getting better."
And I said, "Well, you know,
yeah, he is."
Another month went by,
and, reluctantly,
I agreed to let
the scans take place.
She looks at us and says,
"I don't know
how to tell you this.
I can't explain it.
But his scan is clear.
There is no more tumors
in his chest."
Four months. 20 tumors.
Gone.
It's clear.
We do the next scan... Clear.
The next scan... Clear.
The next scan... Clear.
She goes, "There's no cancer
in him right now.
He's clear."
April's our magic month that...
I call it the magic month,
because that's when
we're gonna stop chemo totally
and then just try to see if...
If it is the cannabis,
we're gonna find out
right there and then.
You know, I find out a child
has cancer or something,
I go straight to the parent,
and I give them
Dr. Goldstein's number.
And I say, "You have to try.
- You have to try."
- She goes straight
to the parent and tells them,
"Put your kid on oil."
- I do. I do.
- 100%.
She just goes, goes, goes.
I will look at the people and
people that ask me about A.J.
and ask me about the cannabis
oil, and I will tell them,
"I honestly don't know
if this will work for you,
but what I'm gonna tell you
is what it did for my son."
I have over probably
300 pediatric patients
using cannabis right now.
I have a case report
of a 16-year-old
who came to me a year ago April
with a stage IV osteosarcoma.
They came in,
referred in by an oncologist.
So bravo to her
for sending the patient to me.
He started cannabis oil
in April,
and in July, he had PET scan,
C.T., MRI,
and a bone scan
all negative for disease,
which is really incredible.
He had repeat scans in November,
which were negative.
I called his oncologist,
and I said, "What do you think?"
And she said,
"Well, he should be dead."
I just saw him last week.
His hair's growing back.
He's off chemo.
He's a little bit beat up from
his three years of chemotherapy.
For about the first eight months
of his treatment,
he was on gemcitabine,
which is, in one study,
synergistic with cannabinoids
to increase cancer killing.
It appears so far that we're
getting some good results.
I never say "cure" with cancer
'cause I don't know,
but I definitely say
"extension of life."
First time
that we talked with A.J.,
he was almost nonverbal,
because he had
so much inflammation.
Here he was two months ago,
and here he is now.
That's him?
No more steroids.
That's your typical cancer-kid
face right there.
And that's him now.
God, you got to love that.
Oh, Angela.
When they went back to Chicago,
fortunately, somebody
in California
was willing to act
as an angel for them.
So, we got A.J. initially...
He was on the Hindu Kush
and the Yummy.
- Right.
- If he's only on 0.5
right now on that...
The Skunk hasn't
come in yet from our angel.
Uh-oh.
We're gonna have
to figure that out.
This is not the ratio
I want him at.
I want him to be on
the 5-something of THC
and 2-something of the CBD.
I want him to be on
at least two-to-one.
When the Skunk gets here,
we'll get back to that goal.
Right, okay.
Do you have enough right now?
We're just about
done at this point.
I would rather that you give him
a little less each dose
and stretch it out
than risk running out of it.
- Okay.
- And how's he doing in school?
Oh, my gosh.
He's doing phenomenal.
He loves going to school.
He's on grade level
at this point, and...
And that's on a gram
and a half of cannabis.
What a rock star. Okay.
She's doing 0.5
at two times a day
and was only doing the 1
on the THC,
which is not sufficient.
When we had that big
CBD shortage,
they got some medicine
from somebody else.
Everybody that has a still
is not an oil maker.
Everybody that has,
you know, flowers
does not know
what to do with it.
I get so furious
with the lack of legis...
I mean, the lack of regulation
and the lack of oversight.
And that's one of
the main reasons
I want it legal is so that
we can start having standards
and not having it be
the Wild West,
which is just insane right now.
Let me call Tracy.
Where are we right now
on dosing on Sophie?
Predominantly,
we're at one-to-one.
Okay.
What made you decide
to change to one-to-one?
I thought that was what
we had discussed a while back.
I don't remember
exactly why it was
that we switched to a one-to-one
'cause it's been so long ago.
But now she's doing
Charlotte's Web
and the THC
that you gave me last...
I can't remember
what strain it was,
and...
So, she's not even...
She's doing Charlotte's Web
instead of our...?
It's been predominantly
Charlotte's for a while.
Really?
'Cause, remember,
you ran out of CBD.
Yeah, I knew that...
'Cause last time I asked you,
you told me
that she's had a grand total
of two syringes
of Charlotte's Web.
- No.
- Yes.
She started
Charlotte's Web in February.
If you look at your records
and you see how much CBD
you sent me,
it hasn't been
that much for a while,
because you guys had
that shortage.
Right, so you're...
She's not really
our patient anymore.
She's just using
one of our products.
Well, I mean,
you've trained me well.
We were having success.
I knew what I was doing.
I knew I had excellent medicine.
You had trained me
how to take care of her.
How I was taking care of her
was working.
I mean, you know,
she has her own plants there,
and it's $100 cheaper.
Actually, this last one
was only $204.51
for almost 10 grams.
So, you know, I don't have
a lot of money right now.
I'm barely hanging on.
And anywhere I can save
100 bucks,
especially if I need to get
two or three syringes,
- it's a big deal.
- Okay, well...
I hope you understand that.
It's not that I don't
trust your medicine.
I love your medicine
just as much.
It's really a financial thing.
Right. Yeah.
Um, Sophie's doing great,
though.
So that's all that matters.
Yeah, she is just
as normal as any 2-year-old.
We went and saw
Dr. Bonni Goldstein today
to get her reviewed,
and Bonni just didn't
believe her eyes
- at how great she's doing.
- Okay.
All right. Take care.
Say hi to everyone for me.
Will do.
Talk to you later.
- All right. Bye.
- Bye-bye.
In order for someone to be
our patient, they have to commit
to allowing us to follow them
and learn from them.
That's the only reason
we do this
is so that we can learn
and understand and whatever.
If somebody's getting medicine
from other places
and then not taking it the way
that we tell them to take it,
they might as well just go
to a dispensary and buy it.
That's not who
an Aunt Zelda's patient is.
So, I'm gonna have
to give considerable thought
to whether Sophie
is still our patient
under these circumstances.
And it's too bad, because
I believe Sophie is where she is
because of our protocol
and our medicine.
But, oh,
how quickly they forget.
The day has finally come
that we are doing
our first CannaKids meet-up.
This is, like, our big
kind of official
CannaKids launch day.
So we're really excited.
We've got a lot of people
in the industry coming.
We've got a lot
of families coming.
Hey, hey!
Hi, guys!
How are you?
Sophie!
Hi, baby!
Oh, goodness!
Can I have a kiss?
Thank you.
Did you see your friends?
Test. All right, everybody.
We're gonna go ahead and get
started here in just a second.
My name is Tracy Ryan.
I am the co-founder
of CannaKids.
So, just a quick rundown
of what the site is gonna be.
First and foremost, it's
a massive resources section...
So, all of the information that
I have learned over the years,
families I know that have
learned over the years.
Since getting her on cannabis
and using it alongside
Western medicine,
we've almost completely
destroyed a tumor
that was, like, never supposed
to really shrink.
So, little Sophie!
So, here we go, guys.
On the screen,
we have the Christmas tree farm.
There are 100 plants
for our patients.
I mean, I have to tell you guys,
like, I'm getting
really emotional
about how everything
is kind of evolving
and, like, coming together.
Look at what we're doing,
you know?
I mean,
we're gonna change lives.
And even if we just save
one child,
even if we cure
one kid of epilepsy,
we shrink one brain tumor
more than what we've done
with Sophie,
we've changed the world.
It's definitely an improvement.
Yeah.
Yeah, I couldn't
be more pleased.
- Oh, God.
- Yeah.
Night and day, Chico.
- Night and day.
- People double-take.
And it takes them a few seconds
to realize that it's Chico.
I say, you know,
"Remember Chico,"
you know, because it was
really tough on you.
This therapy was really tough.
And we got through it.
You got through barely,
by the skin of your teeth,
with a lot of help
from a variety of sources.
And just seeing you now,
it's terrific.
This is what I live for.
Questions?
Can we get a renewal of his
cannabis oil recommendation?
I mentioned it to Margie
the other day.
- Yes, absolutely.
- 'Cause we're still giving him
- a small maintenance dose.
- Sure, absolutely.
Because they say it helps
prevent relapse.
And also, it stimulates
appetite, as well.
Absolutely.
A lot of this
is very new for us.
And...
so I don't know all the answers.
The reality is
is we're learning.
And because of patients
like you, Chico, we've...
Our minds are more open
towards these types of things
and that there are
other patients
that have derived benefit
from our experience with you.
And that is, I think,
very helpful.
There's still a lot
that we don't know.
I just want to say thank you
for being an amazing oncologist.
And thank you
for having such an open mind.
And, like, it's fantastic,
isn't it, Chico?
Isn't it?
What do you say to Dr. Federman?
Thank you.
Do you realize you
and what you did
has made him change his mind
and change his thinking?
Yeah.
That's incredible!
I'm so proud of you!
Are you proud of yourself?
- Yeah.
- You really should be.
You really should be.
We bought a bike about two
weeks before he was diagnosed,
and he wasn't ever able
to get on that bike.
And then monumentally got
on the bike and started cycling.
I was like...
"This is a good day."
I now consider myself
a "momcologist."
I mean, three years
of chemotherapy,
in and out of hospitals,
and the research papers
that have come across my desk
and the websites that we've now
built to gather information
and study all of the different
clinical trials
that are out there...
I'm proud of the accomplishments
that we've made
in such a short time.
Okay, yeah, let's check in here.
And then, for the press
conference, we just go upstairs?
Yes, it's on the second floor.
Okay, right up there.
Just up the stairs.
- Thank you.
- Oh, yeah, of course.
I started doing this
five-plus years ago now,
and I've been working
on creating this software,
fueling it with our data,
and it's now out in beta.
And we have on our board
some of the leading scientists
in the world.
Cristina Sanchez
from Complutense University
is coming for two months,
and we're gonna be having
Dr. Noah Federman,
who's on our board, from UCLA.
Oh, my God.
Leading sarcoma specialist.
And they're getting together
to start...
We're getting an IRB
to start analyzing our data
and then run clinical trials,
out of UCLA.
Right? So, the fact that we are
at Harvard Medical School
is so important,
because we are taking something
that is seen
on the outer fringe,
and we are legitimizing it
by bringing it
into this traditional
Harvard environment.
So I'm very, very grateful
to be here.
Quick video of you
to send to my wife?
- Yes, you may.
- Okay. Hold on.
Okay.
Okay. Hello.
I trust this woman
with my wife's life.
Can I ask you a question?
On the way down, please.
- Hey, Mara.
- Hello.
Sophie is a mixed thing for me,
because, obviously,
it's a little bit
of a dagger to my heart,
because I was treating her
and doing a really good job.
And lo and behold,
somebody's interest
in becoming a "cannapreneur"
got in the way of whatever,
but that's
a whole separate thing.
As we say in Yiddish,
"Zei gezunt"...
Let them go in good health,
you know?
Mara, this is Jackie Green.
Now I have this incredible line
of gold medicinal oils,
actually,
that I'm about to give Sophie.
Our own strain called Isabella's
Bloom, which is named after her.
Mara has been generous,
and I'm forever grateful to her
for the knowledge
that she's given me
and for the assistance
that she's given to my child.
But why not make
an incredible oil
and give my daughter
free medicine?
- Are you guys doing indoor now?
- No.
Talking about
the actual processing.
Oh, oh, oh.
But it's... Yeah.
It's not what it used to be.
- Right.
- Yeah.
We do, in fact, promote
whole plant extracts.
You have to have
the entourage effect.
You have to have the synergy
between the terpenes,
the flavonoids, everything else
that's in the plant,
in addition to the cannabinoids
that are in there.
And even the cannabinoids
working together
have a synergistic effect.
We must have clinical trials.
It doesn't need to be
in the hands of people like me.
I'm glad that my software's
gonna be able
to put it into the hands
for the clinical trials
and the doctors and all.
Unfortunately, California has
a reputation of the Wild West,
and I would say that
without regulations there,
it is kind of hard to practice.
But what I'm gonna
tell everybody
is that my patients
are getting medicine.
My patients are getting better.
My patients have better
quality of life.
And so it is imperative
the rest of the country
follows California.
- Eric Ruby.
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
I am a pediatrician in Taunton,
which is about
an hour south of here.
- Oh, great.
- I'm the only pediatrician
in all of Massachusetts
who is registered with
the medicinal marijuana program.
Good for you.
- I am bombarded with patients.
- Of course.
- Mm-hmm.
- I appreciate what you're doing.
Please write something
for the pediatric journals.
- It's got to be there.
- Yeah.
And they've got to accept it.
Pharmaceutical companies,
I believe,
are suppressing all of this.
The impediments,
the obstructions...
I mean,
I'm in practice 39 years.
And the people who lose
are the patients.
Are the patients.
Of course. Of course.
Ow!
Ow. Okay, okay, okay.
Forget about it!
Gave our son, you know,
eight months to live.
So...
Aggravated, upset...
...that we had
to go through all of this
to get, you know,
some type of...
I guess some answer
to whether if it works or not.
Mm-hmm.
We... We did what we could do,
and that's what matters.
Good morning!
Oh, it's school day today.
Are you excited?
- No?
- Oh, yeah!
Oh, he's excited!
So, he's still on
quite a big dose, really.
He can have it
before he goes to school.
We wouldn't be sending him
with his vaporizer to school.
I just think if having
this mixture every day
increases his odds
of not relapsing,
then it's worth doing, isn't it?
He's going to be
a completely normal child.
Aren't you? Starting with
brushing your teeth.
Come on. Go and get your teeth
brushed quickly.
We got to go.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we should always be welcoming
when someone comes in.
Is your name Chico?
You can take an open seat.
The next thing I have
to talk about
is reviewing the dress code.
I had a couple of students
last year
who would wear clothing
that had, like,
a marijuana leaf on it.
That is not school-appropriate.
Once again, something that you
wouldn't want to be caught with
at school is something that
should not be on your clothing.
- Hey!
- Hey!
Oh, my God. Look at you.
Oh, yay!
Oh, it's so good to see you.
- You, too.
- Look at you.
Is it good stuff? We got it from
a shop that had been busted.
Oh, there's no instructions?
No, no instructions.
Chico came,
and he's like, "Mum, Mum,
I know what I want
for my birthday."
And he said,
"I want grow equipment
so I can set up my own grow
and grow my own plants
and make my own medicine
with Mara."
Oh, right on.
That's so cool.
So, you'll have to come up to us
and go into the lab
and work with our chemist
and actually make the medicine.
That would be just
absolutely fantastic.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
And he said he wanted
to dedicate his grow.
My friend who had cancer
the same time as me.
And she didn't make it.
But, um...
we were really good friends.
Yeah.
It's very special.
Gee, thanks. Make me cry.
- Me, too.
- Right.
If someone had told me
that I would be buying
my 14-year-old son
cannabis-grow equipment
for his birthday,
I would have thought
they were rather silly.
Absolutely.
It's funny how life
is, isn't it?
And some of them drink a little
more water than the other ones.
These will get
a little more bigger.
Some of them will get,
like, more fatter.
We can have a grand opening.
Well done, Chico!
Thank you, Stewart.
- Oh, yes.
- My pleasure.
She loves it, too.
Oh, Chico.
I'm writing to the President
to help legalize
cannabis oil for kids
so they don't have to go through
what I went through.
It makes me sad
and kind of confused,
because I don't get
why they can't have it
if it really helps them.
United States government,
through its Department of Heath
and Human Services,
holds a patent on marijuana
as a protectant for the brain.
And it's something to protect
the brain after head injuries.
How is that possible that the
U.S. Government holds a patent?
The U.S. Government holds
a patent, on one hand,
and on the other hand,
same government
says it has
no medical application.
Journalists, I think,
are trained to hate hypocrisy.
This is hypocrisy...
Just... I've never seen it
quite like this.
Why does the federal government,
the federal government,
hold patents
on the various
ingredients of marijuana
if they don't think
it has medical value?
And why should the federal
government be looking to benefit
from future medical use
of cannabis products
because they have these patents?
This is unconscionable.
It's just unconscionable
the positions they've taken.
And meanwhile,
they keep denying,
and they keep denying,
and they keep denying.
It's cruel.
And years from now,
in the future,
people will look back
on this time and marvel,
marvel at how cruel we've been.
The whole idea of,
"There's not enough research,"
is actually true.
There's not enough.
But there's enough research
for me to know,
one, it happens to be
a very safe medication,
and, two, it works.
The whole drug issue,
the drug policy reform issue,
is a human-rights issue
at its core.
The hope is the use of cannabis
becomes de-politicized
and appropriately integrated
into health, medicinal,
wellness, spiritual,
human cultural systems,
as it has always been
for thousands of years.
Right, mate.
Let's put your jacket on.
Go on. Zip it up.
Now, have you been
on a bike before?
- Um, a dirt bike.
- Okay.
When Chico got sick,
this friend of ours, Latch,
kept sending him messages
on Facebook saying,
"I'm gonna be taking you for a
ride on the back of the Harley."
It just so happens
that today is the day,
which didn't seem like
it was ever gonna be
possible at one point.
The louder you scream and shout,
the faster we go.
Any last words, Mum?
I think I'm more scared
than he is.
"Bring my boy back."
Yeah, have fun. Enjoy yourself.
You've earned this ride, Chico.
- Oh, yeah.
- You really have.
Do you want to give it
a quick rev?
See you in a bit.
Alexander Kephart!
Mm
- A muffin.
- A muffin?
Mm
I think I see
them flies around here.
Ah, ah
Millions displaced
by hurricanes
Islanders fear the clouds
and rains
There's no place else to go
This is our home,
the only one
It should be clear
what must be done by now
I'm sure we know
Ah, ah
Our home
Ah, ah
Our home
We're out of time,
the world's on fire
No time to wait
to get inspired
We've crossed
the finish line
We've got to move,
we've got to fly
We've got to act,
we've got to try
We're out of stallin' time
We're still in time
We're still in time
We're still in time
Mm
When are we going
to understand
All that's alive
is in our hands?
Mm, mm
When are we going
to understand
All that's alive
is in our hands?
Time
We're still in time
We're still in time
Mm
We're still in time
Mm
Ah, ah
We're still in time
Mm
We're still in time
Mm
Mm