We've been able to acquire many sched 1 drugs for research purposes fairly easily. Just register with DEA, your University also has to be licensed, and you need a DEA-registered vendor for whatever controlled substance you need...that's the process here in FL anyway.

The families demanding access for research purposes should find a relevant clinical trial and enroll or move to a state where MJ has been legalized. In those states, it is very easy to find high Cannabidiol extracts (so I hear). They can also fund the research themselves (I accept donations to support my research) or organize a charity event with all proceeds going to a designated research program to support their agenda.

I'm hopeful that the general public becomes more engaged in supporting research. The recent JOBS Act related to equity based crowd funding should help catalyze this. I've gotten a bit off topic but hope this helps...if only a little.

In Argentina is very difficult to acquire cannabinoids as medical products. but i think that giving to cannabinoids an status similar to opoids can make more easy to access to this drugs.

Thanks Jan!!!!

interesting thing

In Slovakia Cannabidiol, [CBD, 2-/(1R, 6R)-6-izopropenyl-3-metylcyklohex-2-en-1-yl/-5-pen-tylbenzene-1,3 -diol] is on the list of psychotripic substances. As in the case of morphine or other strongly regulated substances there is a way to allow research and eventual trials. It would require substantial paperwork but still - it's manageable.

As for the fatal side effects - I can't express concurring opinion. There are papers where THC is linked to sudden cardiac death of apparently healhy individuals. I have at exprienced at least two similar cases in the past 10 years.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073801006090?cc=y

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1552-4604.2002.tb06004.x/abstract

Hi Dick,

I know how passionate and committed you are to helping alleviate the pain and suffering of all individuals, particularly those children and adults who are severely challenged to adequately address their own needs. That said (and with your knowledge of how I generally have been in the "legal control" camp for decades --- in relation to the use of "illicit" substances), please be assured that what I am about to suggest is an earnest and sincere response to your question.

The answer is simply to: (1) legalize the personal use of all substances among adults; (2) legalize the prescription of all substances by licensed/registered prescribers; (3) hold adults individually responsible for any actions that they may perform while under the influence of a particular substance; (4) hold prescribers individually responsible, under the law and to their respective licensing/registering professional organizations, for the safe and competent prescribing of all substances; and (5) have related researchers abandon social agendas (e.g., either the legalization or criminalization of substance use) and just present the facts (i.e., if you take CBD orally in capsule form its use is not associate with an increased risk for cancer; however, if you mix CBD with organic material, such as tobacco or cannabis, and smoke it then a significant risk for lung damage, including cancer, is created).

Hope this helps . . . you know I could go on forever . . .

Sincerest warmest regards,

Lou

Hi Lou,

Good to hear from you.

I would be okay with with a lot of what you suggest, enthusiastically supportive of some of it, and just don't know enough to have opinions about the rest. Before going on, I should state that I have a personal stake in this. Our son is 23 now, and his condition MECP2 Duplication Syndrome comes with severe, intractable seizures. So far, most people with this diagnosis don't make it to age 25. We have worked our way through most of the anticonvulsants with very poor results. Some have had horrible side effects, others just didn't seem to help at all, still others were both useless and horrible side effects.

So we are stuck. He has multiple seizures every day and he is taking very high doses of valproate which really slows him down. Adding to the problem, valproate has been shown to increase levels of the Mecp2 protein, which is the substance that he already has to much of and that is the cause of his condition in the first place. So we are poisoning him twice a day to try to keep the seizures from getting even worse.

I don't really know if cannabidiol would help him, but there have been some cases of good results and there is little evidence so far of it doing serious harm to anyone. So we are stuck in the place of doing something that everyone acknowledges is bad for him, and impatient to try something that actually might help him.

Joe, your question is a good one, and I don't think a very clear answer is available at this time. So far, the emerging answer seems to be Cannabidiol appears to reduce the frequency and intensity of seizures in some (but not all) individuals with frequent seizures that cannot be controlled with other known anticonvulsants. A minority have had complete or almost complete seizure control. Half or more seem to get a significant reduction in frequency, and many are able to reduce dosage of other anticonvulsants. Currently there are quite a few clinical trials in place that may help sort out which type of seizure (Geeralized, partial, etc) responds well, and may help reduce the effect of data regression (people are most likely to try something new when things are unusually bad, there is a better than 50-50 chance things will improve). Epidiolex (a pharmaceutical grade version of Cannibidiol) is currently being used in a number of clinical trials and some early results are encouraging see https://www.aesnet.org/meetings_events/annual_meeting_abstracts/view/1868751