- Nate started taking medication for autism when
he was around five years old.
As Nate was getting into high school,
the aggression levels just
really started spiraling out of control.
He randomly started running into other classrooms,
punching people for nothing.
It took four adult men and handcuffs to bring him down
to the ground, cuff him and restrain him.
At that time, he was taking 18 pills every single day.
And it wasn't even helping.
I started researching the medical marijuana states.
We were able to come to California.
I remembered seeing the big neon cannabis leaf in
the window, I'm like, "Well that's gotta be where we
have to go." (laughs)
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] Why don't you tell me a little bit about
your family, you have three kids.
- Okay, my name is Jenni Mai.
I have three sons on the autism spectrum.
Each child is of course so different, like any other child,
and as far as them being on the spectrum, Nathan is what
is considered to be at the very severe end.
And rather than trying to find the right medication,
they just gave him more and more and more of it,
and that was really the only solution they had.
I did not want him being chemically restrained in a bed,
being (crying) taken care of by strangers.
I'm sorry.
I had come across this little video clip
of a young boy who was just repeatedly punching himself
in the head.
- [Reporter] 11 year old Alex Ekels is severely autistic.
His self-destructive behavior brought on by--
- And it caught my attention because
it was something that Nate had done.
His parents were talking about giving him some kind
of an oil.
I was confused, because it sounded like it was some kind
of a marijuana derivative, and I was actually shocked
and maybe even a little bit disgusted.
- [Reporter] And after a few months of treatment,
the Ekels say they saw a dramatic improvement.
- Within just a few minutes of this boy taking
the oil orally, he was smiling, he was calm,
and he wasn't hurting himself anymore, and I'm like,
"Wait, what just happened there?" (laughs)
I watched it a few more times,
and I was completely shocked and desperate.
- At that point, Jenni and her family just moved
from Wisconsin to Missouri.
Two states where getting pot legally for really any reason
is super difficult,
but particularly medical cannabis to treat autism.
Currently only 12 states include autism as
a qualifying condition.
Five other states and the District of Colombia
are considered autism friendly,
meaning doctors can recommend medical cannabis
for debilitating conditions.
So that leaves 33 states where you can't access
medical cannabis to treat autism at all.
- I was raised in the Nancy Reagan "Just say no" era.
- Say no to drugs, and say yes to life.
- I would have never in my life considered this
to be a medicine, but I basically told my husband,
"We have to try that."
- Like most illicit drugs, the scientific
and medical research of marijuana has been challenging.
But the tide appears to be turning.
The first large scale clinical trials underway
in Montefiore medical center in New York City.
And it may be the key to unlocking access to treatment for
children with autism, nationwide.
Dr. Eric Hollander is leading that study.
- I've been involved in research developing new therapies
and treatments, in autism spectrum disorders
for about 30 years, and there's a big need
to develop treatments for the poorer symptoms of autism.
- This study focuses on a new compound called Cannabidivarin
or CBDV, it's an extract from the cannabis plants similar
to CBD, it doesn't include THC,
the psychoactive drug that gets you high,
and what Jenni uses to treat Nate,
but it's the first step to studying cannabis
to treat autism.
- This particular cannabinoid has some effects
on some of the underlying mechanisms
that we think are essential to autism.
The problem behaviors, the destructive behaviors,
and also in some of the compulsive behaviors,
or repetitive behaviors or perseverative behaviors,
so it gets at a key mechanism that we think is important.
- There is reason to be optimistic.
This new CBDV based drug is similar to one
that's already been approved by the FDA
to treat a severe form of epilepsy that shares some
of the same symptoms that Dr. Hollander is studying.
This new research could help cement what has largely
been anecdotal support of using cannabis to treat autism.
But while that research is ongoing, parents like Jenni
are moving to states that have more lax marijuana laws.
For Jenni and her family, that meant packing up everything
and moving all the way across the country.
That decision may sound extreme, but for Jenni and Nate,
it's been worth it.
Their lives have been transformed since
first visiting a dispensary.
- We got home, and he took a hit immediately.
We got this one.
- [Nate] Okay.
- And within, not even five minutes,
it was just like a light switch.
He was happy, and just kind of looking around like,
he had never seen the world in that way and he was smiling
and looking at me, and I just knew right away,
'cause nothing acted that quickly or that positively ever.
- Jenni has learned a lot since moving
her family out to California.
There she joined forces with fellow mom, Ronda,
to start the non-profit Whole Plant Access For Autism.
Now it's a team of moms dedicating their lives
to helping other families navigate the challenges
that come with getting cannabis for their autistic kids.
- I feel like a lot of people that come to our booth,
someone in their lives has been touched by autism,
and they don't know that this is an option for them.
Other times we get people that you know,
come to us after the event, they email us
or they find us on social media and they want to learn.
And that's kind of what we're about, we're about educating.
- We decided to take a drive out to Joshua Tree.
I had him vape and take an edible
right before we left the house.
He saw that I saw taking pictures and most of
the other pictures that I've ever taken of him in his life,
it was kind of a vacant stare, he wouldn't really look,
he wouldn't really smile, and he ran over in front of me
and sat down.
He sat there and he posed for a picture,
like everybody else would in a situation like that.
(sniffs) And I just, I'm like, "That's it.
That's basically his birth picture."
You shouldn't have to go through the whole gamut
of medications and side effects and long-term consequences
of some of those side effects in order to get to it.
Just look at cannabis as another tool
in your tool belt to try.
- Thanks for watching.
For more Dope Science content, check out our website,
and subscribe to Freethink for more great videos every week.
If you want to learn more about what Jenni and Ronda are doing
with their non-profit, you can go to their website
which is wpa4a.org.