You coming out of it?
You're trying.
Benjamin has very difficult to control epilepsy and has failed eight medicines and he's on
five now and has failed diet therapy and he's not a surgical candidate.
The family is interested, as a result, in pursuing CBD oil to see if that might help him
since nothing else has.
We worked tooth and nail in 2015 and I was proud to be one of the co-authors of legislation
that ultimately passed and here we are 2018 and you have the first patient finally receiving access.
People that have tried multiple medications that weren't treating their symptoms now have
access to something else – prescribed by a doctor.
I'm very proud that the state of Texas has taken the step to create the Texas Compassionate
Use Program.
At the same time we can do so much more.
It has to be like pointed underneath my tongue.
I have to go like…
First adult in Texas.
He's the first adult to get CBD oil, because he didn't have epilepsy until he was 12.
He went into the hospital November 5, 2009.
Okay, measure the two cups first.
Caught a virus.
The virus breached the barrier to the brain is what they believe caused this.
He's almost died several times.
Zack has tried everything.
He's tried diets.
He's got two different kinds of stimulators.
He's had three different brain surgeries and he's had 15 medications.
Right?
So he is definitely the guy who's tried it all.
We're really crossing our fingers that CBD will bring something else, without
a price tag of a lot of side effects attached.
Benjamin was a foster child and I adopted him when he was 2-1/2 years old.
He has a rare chromosome disorder.
Seizures are so debilitating and they've taken the life from my son.
Right now he's on Keppra, Depakote, Lamictal and then he gets Midazolam, Clonazepam and
Diastat daily as a rescue medication.
As soon as we get the okay we're going to go to Austin and start the journey of trying
the CBD oil and hopefully seeing less seizures.
It's going to cost us an arm and a leg.
It's outrageous.
He said it could be up to $3000 a month.
I'm a single mom.
That's scary to think that there might be something out there to help my son that I can't afford.
The issue is the insurance companies won't cover something that's federally illegal.
So it may be legal in the state of Texas, but they have the choice to say, "Well, it's not
federally legal".
The dosage that Zack's on right now is roughly $400 a month and it's out of pocket.
You know, that is going to prevent access to some people.
If you have only one or two dispensaries in the state of Texas that have paid these hundreds
of thousands of dollars of licensing fees, hundreds of thousands of dollars to build
buildings with the security, and you only have one or two patients?
It's not going to cover their costs, so it's going to drive up the cost of access for these
patients that are eligible.
We need to expand access to medical care, which ultimately will drive down the cost.
There's just some people, seem like they're over a certain age, that think that any use
of it is detrimental to society.
There's concerns that – was this opening the door to recreational use?
I absolutely do not support recreational use in the state of Texas.
I think it's a fear of primary voters in heavily Republican districts.
We need people that are courageous, that are willing to do the right thing, even if it
costs them an election.
Would you like to pay with cash, credit or debit today?
Started selling medicine on February 8, which is when we had our grand opening of this dispensary.
We had three patients that were here on opening day.
We added a couple more over the weekend.
I think the more that the word gets out there, and the more that people become aware that
this medicine is available, the more that people are going to want to get access to it.
There are absolutely barriers for these families.
One barrier is access to neurologists that can be qualified in order to write the prescription.
Two is the need to have a second qualified prescriber that can second that opinion.
Three is is for those people to be able to get access to it.
If this medicine has the intended effect on people, which is it helps reduce the suffering,
then you want to ease the barriers by which they can get access to that medicine.
The drugs that we have, other than CBD, to treat epilepsy quiet your brain and what that
means is it dulls it.
When you're taking one, that might not be an issue.
When you're taking four, cognitively dulling can be debilitating.
In the very beginning, Zack had, I think, six different meds.
He would just sit on the couch and had no desire to do anything.
Now we're lucky with the surgeries that he's had, hopefully with the CBD, we'll be able
to pull away some of the drugs that are cognitively dulling.
I'm excited. Super hopeful.
Yesterday was a really bad day.
He had probably 15 seizures.
Three of them were over 15 minutes.
He needs some relief.
Even last night, we didn't know we were going to get it today.
Like last night they called and said there was an issue with the prescription.
After him having a bad day yesterday, and to get the call that the prescription was
messed up and we still needed some things done on that end was frustrating.
Then we got the call this morning.
The thicker wires are the shape of the brain.
The little wires are where seizures come from.
Then who's that circling around with the purple cape?
Anti-seizure man.
Are you? Lay down.
Just lay down.
Scan your VNS and scan your head.
Scan your head.
What is ... It's okay.
It's all right.
You okay?
Almost.
Okay. When you feel all right sit up.
Nothing in the parent manual that prepares you for the helplessness that you feel when
your child is suffering from anything.
If I could save him by taking his seizures somehow, I would do it in a heartbeat.
We're hoping that CBD helps but we are also trying to keep from being too overly excited
because if it doesn't work, then what's next?
But the one thing that we believe is we never give up hope.
Can you sit up now?
There you go.
A friend did a garage sale and our neighborhood has a fund that they donated and they surprised
me with a check for $500.
It hasn't come out of my pocket yet.
We had one good day.
He was playing and happy and just Benjamin being a little boy.
Then we had a really bad day and ended up in the ER at Cooks and got admitted for the
weekend because it was significantly worse than his typical bad days.
We are definitely going to keep going on trying the CBD.
I can't give up.
Like if this is the thing that's going to help my son, there's nothing that's going
to stop me from putting both feet in and trying it until we can't try it any longer.
You know I'm proud of where Texas is.
Change happens slowly.
And the winds of change take a while to turn.
But once they reach a certain inflection point, then they can start to howl.