Mother of daughter with epilepsy makes case for medical marijuana

By TOM KNAPP

Lorelei Ulrich
Dana Ulrich is seeing her daughter disappear.
“Lorelei used to play and laugh and do what kids do,” Ulrich says of her 6-year-old blond-haired girl.
“I see that Lorelei fading day by day. She rarely smiles, she rarely plays. She barely eats. She’s fading away before my eyes, and these are side effects of the medicines she’s forced to take every day.”
Lorelei, her mother explains, has epilepsy.
“It is intractable in nature. That means that, over the last four years, she hasn’t had any successful treatments,” Ulrich says.
Medical marijuana might help. In fact, recent trials have shown great success in treating children with similar conditions, Ulrich says.
“I’ve been researching alternative options for almost a year now, looking online mostly, researching everything I can. That’s the thing that kept popping up,” she says.
“Initially, I disregarded it.”
Then, in August, CNN aired a documentary, “Weed,” that featured a medical marijuana success.
In the program, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reversed his opposition to medical marijuana.
“It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana,” Gupta said.
“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.”
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