Should Medical Marijuana Be Used to Treat Kids With Autism?
With more and more children being diagnosed with autism, a search for a treatment is moving past traditional medicines. Now one focus is whether medical marijuana can be effective in curbing, easing or even reversing some of the by-products of autism.
In some instances, autism can make children violent and aggressive. "Sam" is one of those children. The 10-year-old boy from Northern California would lash out with no provocation.
"He got to the point where he was hurting other children, when he was in school, or in public places," his mother told KTLA News. "We'd be in line at the store, and he'd just bolt and hit another child in the face without any warning at all."
Working with doctors, Sam was put on traditional medications such as Risperdal, which has massive weight gain as a side effect. Sam was still violent, but now 20 pounds heavier and stronger.
After speaking with a medical cannabis doctor, the family decided to give marijuana a try. Sam's father grows it in the backyard, making the concentrated form commonly referred to as hash. Sam eats a speck of it hidden in a piece of fruit.
"The first time we did it, we wanted to see if it would work at all," the father recalled. "It was an amazing experience, I'll never forget it, as we watched what happened, it was like 'He's back!' It was like all this anguish, pent-up rage and aggressiveness went away -- it just calmed him down."
This is not the only success story. Marie Myung-Ok Lee of Rhode Island gives her autistic son cannabis tea and cookies made with marijuana-infused oil. Her 9-year-old son has aggression issues, stomach pain, and "pica," which means he eats non-edible items. But after taking his daily doses of medical marijuana, it all goes away. She writes on the website DoubleX.com:
"Next, we started seeing changes in J.’s school reports. His curriculum is based on a therapy called Applied Behavioral Analysis, which involves, as the name implies, meticulous analysis of data. At one parent meeting in August (J. is on an extended school year), his teacher excitedly presented his June-July “aggression” chart. An aggression is defined as any attempt or instance of hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person. For the past year, he’d consistently had 30 to 50 aggressions in a school day, with a one-time high of 300. The charts for June through July, by contrast, showed he was actually having days—sometimes one after another—with zero aggressions."
There are similar stories from many parents. But the big question remains: Is it really safe to give medical marijuana to children? Los Angeles-area pediatrician Chris Tolcher said we just don't know enough yet to give an answer.
"I think for all the parents out there whose children may have autism," Tolcher says, "The message here is that this is intriguing information that needs more research before we can confidently say that marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for autism complications."
But consider this from Dr. Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego:
"I stress that I am strongly opposed to drugs in general, and consider them a last resort to be employed only when safer and more efficacious treatments fail. But while I am not 'pro-drug,' I am very much 'pro-safe and effective treatment,' especially in cases where an autistic individual’s behaviors are dangerous or destructive. Early evidence suggests that in such cases, medical marijuana may be a beneficial treatment, as well as being less harmful than the drugs that doctors routinely prescribe."
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I would say no, Even the kid have autism they are not immune to the side effect that is related with marijuana use . here is an article that list those side effect 10 most common health side effects of using marijuana
I still think their is a better way to treat kid with sutism
I am a broadcast journalism student at USC, and this contraversial topic of treating children with marijuana is very interesting to me. I am interested in speaking with a family who has experienced this-- either positively or negatively. Is there anyone close to the L.A. area willing to share their story with me?
I would like to say that I feel very strongly that medication 's purpose is to assist you to live in a "normal" every day life. For my sons, they take medication's for conditions related to ASD but are physical/internal problems that require maintenance and our oldest does take medication for treatment of Anxiety, he is 4 years old. I realize some people may feel that this is ridiculous however, before the medication he was having difficulty functioning, and after he is able to regulate and attend to activities. If there was a safer alternative like an herb or other natural method I would be happy to use it. Marijauna is an herb, my wife drinks an herbal tea to help with breast milk production, imagine if that was outlawed... What then?! I would agree that both prescription and other controlled substances are abused and so there are regulations needed.
Here is a thought, make all schedule 1 narcotics legal and tax the crap out of them like Alcohol or Tobacco!! Then you can ensure the safety of the drugs , heck methodone is more addictive and dangerous than Crack Cocaine but it is legal!! With any medication/drug you are going to have abusers. Let it be up to the employers to decide if it is ok for you to drug up. I can't go to work drunk or they would fire me!! Prohibition never worked, and it was costly and made a lot of people rich off of the backs of the few. Crime increased and people died of alcohol poisoning due to bad batches boiled up in peoples bathtubs!! Sound familiar!!
I believe so. I work with a client who does exactly the same things in this article. He needs it!! After high school I used ita few times for medicinal reasons. It calmed me down back then and less reactions.
I'm in my 50's now. And I'm still okay with this. Haven't used the stuff since April 1, 1979. This year I find out that alcohol had been drunk while my mother was pregnant with me. So FAE effects have been showing up all these years and no one could give a diagnosis for my behavior. Alcohol is a drug that is more damaging than Medical Marijuana. To me, alcohol is the worse of the two. Alcohol kills brain cells. I have never been told that Marijuana does this. My son told me a little old lady where I live has various foods made with marijuana and she is better because of it.
Go figure. Sometimes you need to use what's staring you right in the face and apply it usefully and properly to get results.
This was also advantageous when driving as it made me far less aggressive and therefore a much safer and more cautious driver without impacting my control or responses to changing road conditions . This has since been confirmed on driving simulators.
At 21 years of age I made a personal commitment to Christ and was faced with the moral dilemma of Cannabis usage for pain relief/aggression modulation Vs what the churches told me was the “moral” thing to do as in their view “Drugs were evil.” I read the Bible (I have almost total recall on the written word) and began to debate the church leaders and theologians on what the Bible actually said on the issue. I was subsequently pushed out of many churches of many denominations over many years for my views and choices. My faith in God is in tact, my church attendance not so.
I chose to retire from my career as a sound engineer at 30 due to the ongoing pain in my back and retrained myself into IT Infrastructure design and security engineering and worked in that field for 17 years. Until COMPULSORY random drug testing in the workplace ended my career!!!!
I was diagnosed as Aspergers by a government Psychologist in Dec 2006 where my cognitive abilities were again tested. The 31 years of Cannabis usage between the first test at 15 and the second test at 46 showed there was no discernible negative cognitive impact with general intelligence being rated at 94% in the first test and 95% in the second. Interestingly I was medicated when I did the second test which throws serious doubts over the claims it impacts cognitive function when used medicinally at low levels. The Psychologist "spat the dummy" when I informed her after the test result were finalised and her report written of my Cannabis usage and the fact I was medicated during the test. It really upset her that my results showed no negative impact after 31 years Cannabis usage. (So much for objective science )
I have not become tolerant to Cannabis and it's calming/pain reducing effects are as good today as the first time I used it. I use the increase in color perception to titrate the dose as I am aware that at a certain level of increase I need to pause medicating or spin out. I either vaporise or use a Bhong (glass&brass with filtering to remove the tars etc that make it through the water and reduce water vapour levels), to administer the dosage and sometimes cook biscuits or muffins with canna-butter if I am going out in public and cannot take my pipe.
Regardless I have had no need to increase my dosage to keep gaining the benefit of the Cannabis in calming me and managing my pain. I have a number of times over the years tried stopping my Cannabis use to ensure I was not becoming “addicted” and have experienced no withdrawal symptoms as such just a return of the anxiety/ discomfort associated with social interaction and of course the pain from my back injuries returns with a vengeance. All of those things were there before I even knew what Cannabis was and so cannot be attributed to withdrawal from the Cannabis.
I only occasionally drink alcohol to very moderate levels, consuming only an occasional glass of port after a good meal to aid digestion.
I have not been intoxicated on any substance since my 21st birthday and do not use cannabis to a point of intoxication only that of pain relief and anxiety reduction. I do not enjoy intoxication.
I have long been a highly productive member of society holding senior technical consulting positions to major corporations and contracting to Government Departments in my area of expertise, all while being a medical cannabis user.
I have made a conscious, informed decision to ignore the unjust, disproportionate, discriminatory bigoted law that ignores/denies the empirical scientific evidence on the efficacy of cannabis, in a select group of patients, for whom no other known medicine works. A law that prohibits me from having the one substance that gives me relief and quality of life and prevents me from exploding in peoples faces. I am currently being persecuted under this draconian law but am fighting back against the bullies, but that is a story for another time.
In hindsight I have known a number of (mostly undiagnosed) Aspies over the years who have used Cannabis to modulate their aggression and keep them calm, all have reported similar effects to those I experience, so I believe it is how Cannabis works with the autistic mind. Our brains are wired differently from the Neuro-typicals of this world and therefore Psychoactive substances react very differently with us, quite often the opposite of what is expected.
Cannabis will not cause learning difficulties at all in Autistics and will in fact help them to concentrate and be involved in social activities without melting down. They will not become tolerant to the calming effects of a carefully titrated dosage and revert to their old aggressive selves again.
My 21 yr old son has Asperger Syndrome with ADHD. 2 yrs ago, upon entering college , he had a major melt down. His anxiety since has been through the roof. The docs put him on anti anxiety meds and now, he has no medical insurance and therefore could not get anymore meds. His withdrawal from the meds have made me wish I had some to take for myself. His younger brother (by 2 1/2 yrs)introduced him to cannabis and lo and behold, it helped! This same brother introduced cannabis to my now 17 yr old who suffers from ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder and with its use, he does not have the once very prevalent episodes of aggression. Sad to say, but I referred to my now 17 yr old as the "child from hell". He is NOT that child once he has some cannabis in him. People can actually LIVE with this child. My 21 yr old is again contemplating college and my 17 yr old is in college.
Cannabis has worked wonders for my children and I believe that all people should be afforded the luxury of at least trying it for their conditions . However, the big pharmaceuticals will fight us as they are afraid of losing money . After all, we could grow it ourselves and have no need for them!
Good luck to you in whatever you choose to do!!
I saw an increase of aggression and hostility with my son using marijuana , as well as extreme lethargy, lack of motivation to perform any kind of work, poor memory and concentration, chronic bronchitis, lower academic achievement. I always thought my son may had mild ADHD, and I believe he may have become less hyperactive with marijuana, but it didn't solve the problem with concentration, and it also seemed to induce depression . This is consistent with mainstream literature on the side effects of marijuana which have been observed by therapists and drug counselors. Research is mixed on the effects of marijuana, but generally suggests that marijuana is not good for children and young adults. Moreover, my son became addicted to marijuana and felt he couldn't function without it, wanted to do nothing other than chill out with marijuana 90% of the time, quit sports , hobbies, refused to get a job or contribute to our household and was only interested in marijuana. I think there are other things in life than marijuana and I also think drug dependency at 14, 15, or 16 is not a good prognosis for a positive life, so this wasn't a good outcome as far as I was concerned. You thought a problem could be solved by marijuana, I thought a problem was either created or exacerbated by marijuana.
Well, Lynn, is your son suffering from autism ? One of my sons has Asperger Syndrome and marijuana has made his live much easier. He swore for years that he wouldn't touch it because he believed all the propaganda that has been force fed to us. Now, after not being able to get his meds, he was willing to try anything as he was to the point that he wanted to die because the anxiety was too much for him. He only wishes now that he had tried marijuana sooner in life.
Your son obviously has an addictive personality. I know too many people that have been smoking since they were young teens and they are NOT addicted. These people do NOT have to have marujuana daily and these people are highly productive people. Now, my 2 sons on " legal " meds were not as productive. My 17yr old, in fact, on legal meds was quite combative. Concerta put his aggression through the roof. he refused to do any school work and I feared he would never graduate high school and today he is in college .
I believe that EVERY parent should have the LEGAL right to at least try marijuana as a medication for their child. I don't know if I could give a 2-12 yr old marijuana but a teen I would. Sorry, but I don't believe that it is any more harmful than the man made CRAP they charge up the butt for at your local drugstore.
As I read your post, I could relate on so many different levels as to the positive effects of the use of marijuana . My son , who is 17 years old, started using marijuana without my knowledge. We noticed a positive change in his grades, attendance at school , and overall attitude about life in general. His anxiety level decreased and he was, for the first time in a long time, a pleasure to be around. After reading these posts about the positive changes parents and Aspies have observed/experienced with the use of cannibas, it gives me pause to rethink my, once, opposed view of usage of this illegal drug. Until a parent has had to endure the ups and downs of raising an Asperger child, then they have absolutely no idea how desperate you become to find that medication that will perform miracles. Even after reading literature concerning the long-term and short-term side-effects of Risperdal, Seroquel, Adderall, Trileptal, etc., there is no way the controlled use of this drug could be any worse? As a mother who so desperately wants her son to be happy and learn to function as a normal(for lack of a better word) person, how can you deny him the use of cannibas for medicinal purposes? The mother who claims that marijuana only made her son more aggressive and lethargic may be dealing with an addictive personality and less to do with Autism. Because, from everything I have read, this medication should be legalized so our children have a better chance to lead a normal and happy life.
As you have until now aggressively attacked anyone's posting supporting legalization or use of medical marijuana ,your claim of self knowledge of any of the effects of marijuana on your " son " is very suspicious,however you have managed to copy,word for word a propaganda speech made by the DEA and the National Institute of Drug Abuse paper,which was contradicted by several studies that noted that most of the abuses were very minor and non-existent in their test subjects. As the results of the effects of marijuana on the Autistic patient have not been completed,please refrain from putting more false information out trying to cloud the issue with bullshirt.