“The cannabis train has left the station,” Dorothy “Liz” Minda said in an interview Friday morning. “It’s working; it’s helping people and healing people with serious medical …
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“The cannabis train has left the station,” Dorothy “Liz” Minda said in an interview Friday morning. “It’s working; it’s helping people and healing people with serious medical concerns.”
Now, Minda is fighting Gina Raimondo’s proposed tax on medical marijuana, which tag plants at $150 per plant for patients and $350 per plant for caregivers.
Minda, a nurse at Kent Hospital since 1987, has three children, a son Derick, 10, and two twin girls, Genna and Jadyn, 9. All three seemed to be developing normally. Then in 2010, at the age of 4, Jadyn suffered from a seizure seemingly out of the blue. From then on she began having a seizure about once a month. Having seen some of the side effects through her profession, Minda was a little apprehensive about putting Jadyn on anti-seizure medication, but as her epilepsy worsened, Minda finally surrendered in February 2011.
Since then, Jadyn has failed to respond to 10 different medications as well as the ketogenic diet specifically for epileptics. The family went to hospital after hospital and doctor after doctor in attempts to control the young girl’s seizures to no avail.
Minda explained at one time her daughter had been under so much medication she was nearly comatose with doctors suggesting even more. Minda argued that while on medication her daughter’s seizures were coming more frequently and more severe than ever.
One doctor had mentioned that medical cannabis was “on the horizon” of epilepsy treatment.
“But my daughter’s seizures weren’t on the horizon, they were happening nearly every day. We couldn’t wait,” Minda said.
Last June, with the help of a new neurologist, Minda received a card for medical cannabis and purchased Charlotte’s Web Hemp Oil, legal in all 50 states and emergency THC oil.
Now, after six years of battling the diagnosis, Minda and her family hopes to wean Jadyn completely off medication, relying solely on hemp oil, which she takes three times a day, and emergency THC oil to quell Jadyn’s frequent seizures.
Minda said, “When we started the hemp oil we saw an immediate and dramatic improvement in Jadyn. Not only are they happening less frequently, but when she does have one they are less severe. We are never looking back.”
Since being on the hemp oil, Jadyn’s daytime seizures are, for the most part, under control, although every few days she does suffer from a seizure in the early morning hours. She has been able to attend Coventry public schools and kept up with her class.
Should Jadyn have a seizure, a drop of the THC oil is placed between her lip and gum. The seizure is “stopped in its tracks” and Jadyn’s ticks and jerks completely stop. In one instance, Minda gave Jadyn the THC in their pediatrician’s office for a seizure.
“They were all amazed,” Minda said. “They all said imagine where we will be in five years with this. It’s incredible.”
Minda assures it’s a misconception about medical cannabis and that her daughter does not get high off the medical cannabis. However, even if Jadyn did Minda said she would prefer her daughter being high over having constant and damaging seizures.
Minda would like to eventually have Jadyn solely using the hemp oil and plans to slowly wean her daughter off the three medications Jadyn is using.
“If we could go cold turkey safely we would,” Minda said, “but these drugs, these chemicals, can be so addictive.”
Minda has seen Jadyn go through “horrific” withdrawal for having been prescribed to these pills for so long, but every time Jadyn comes out on the other side stronger, more cognitive and alert than she was on the medications.
“She’s a little bit more herself every time we get rid of one of the medications. She’s happier, and medical cannabis has allowed us to do this for her. It has given us hope and given our daughter her life back.”
Medical cannabis offers a more natural alternative for individuals with epilepsy as well as a slew of other medical conditions. She believes that there are far less side effects with cannabis than the sometimes dangerous and life-threatening ones posed by prescription drugs.
Minda argues that people can “function” on cannabis better than they can other prescription drugs. One example she used was cancer patients using medical marijuana to combat the side effects of chemo or to combat cancer altogether.
Minda said, “This is helping individuals and families get through the hell of battling a medical condition. Cannabis is helping people every day, giving them their lives back.”
The family has spent a few thousand dollars on hemp oil and emergency THC only since June. Charlotte’s Web Hemp Oil is about $250 a bottle and lasts only a month. Minda worries that should medical marijuana plants be taxed, the products, crucial to her daughter’s health, will prove too expensive.
“It would be cheaper to grow our own plant, but we’d still be taxed, and we don’t have the time to cultivate our own meds,” Minda said. “Then where does it stop? How often will that be increased?”
Overall, she says people seem to be “on board” with medical cannabis, especially those who have seen the effects on Jadyn. She believes cannabis is the way of the future and hopes one-day cannabis is used as the first line of defense not only for epilepsy but also for various other medical concerns.
“I would ask Governor Raimondo to help us, not hinder us,” Minda said. “This is helping so many people. Why would you want to make it harder to access that? It is curing people, it seems like a no-brainer. My daughter is proof. Cannabis has been a ray of hope for our family.”
7 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
richardcorrente
Dear Liz,
I am against all taxes but this one is exceptionally wrong. Medical marijuana is a legal substance that benefits thousands of patients. To tax it would be like taxing a flu shot. No good will come from it and the money will disappear into the "General Fund".
I am very much against it.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 Report this
Justanidiot
Mayer Corrente,
Good luck fighting big pharma. They do not want any kind of drug that they don't control with an iron fist. If you find some plant that grows in your yard that will cure cancer, you can be sure that big pharma will be in there burning it down and taking all the ash with them.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016 Report this
DonnC60
Governor Raimondo should be ashamed to even present such a Bill. I hope none of her children a stricken with a disease where a politician would dare to make it more difficult to get medication. I voted for her and am very sorry I did. She has turned out to be nothing but a money grabber at all turns. I am a medical cannabis patient as well and can't believe she wants to tax PATIENTS MORE we already pay 11% tax on purchases. IT'S RIDICULOUS !!! How would she like her parent or child to have to pay more for their medications at 11% tax rate and taxed on the production of the drugs they may have take. What other medications are taxed at 11%. Insurance will not cover the cost so we have to Fork it over from our own pockets. Is She that desperate? Every politician that has a hand in her Outrageous taxes for Medical Cannabis WILL NEVER GET A VOTE FROM ME
She is a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT !!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016 Report this
Elizabeth
As you have guessed, this is very near and Dear to my heart. To put a price on quality of life is shameful and criminal. I am sure if this was her child, it would not be up for debate. Stay out of this arena, Gina! No one will get between my daughter and I. She will never get back those essential childhood milestones
Walk a mile in our shoes. If there is something in it's raw form that improves quality or gives another chance, you cannot put a price tag on that!!! Follow us on FB= Jadyn's Epilepsy or www.jadynsepilepsycannabiscure.webs.com
Thankyou all for your letters of support. Fight the fight and have a seizure free day!!!
Thursday, March 10, 2016 Report this
HerbTokerman
It is amazing that our government is apparently too stupid to realize that Medical Marijuana is no different than any other medicine and is exempt from sales tax.
Even charging sales tax on what's sold in dispensaries is illegal under RI law.
Medical Marijuana certainly falls within either group #1 or group #2.
There should be a class action lawsuit to not only stop this absurd proposal but also to enforce the ban of ban sales tax at dispensaries as well.
http://www.tax.ri.gov/regulations/salestax/07-60.php
Under the Rhode Island sales tax law, sales of the following are exempt:
1. Medicines and drugs which are sold on a doctor's prescription.
2. Over-the-counter drugs.
3. Insulin
4. Medical oxygen
5. Blood
Sunday, March 13, 2016 Report this
PaulHuff
Maybe medicinal cannabis would be taken seriously if every stoner on earth didn't have a card for their non-existant conditions.
Until then it is just a scam to try to possess cannabis legally.
Sunday, March 13, 2016 Report this
MrsDorRice
A good friend who was diagnosed very young with Stage 3 Breast Cancer just contacted her Facebook Supporters the other day to report that she had used Medical Cannabis to cure her breast cancer with very few side effects. She had started out on chemotherapy and thought it would probably kill her all by itself, it was so devastating, so tried the other treatment which worked so much better. As a result, another young friend with breast cancer which was between Stage 3 and Stage 4 is on the protocol and has reported feeling much better and an actual shrinking of the tumor in the past 2 months on an MRI Scan. I have known a child with constant seizures who was able to begin to function normally and go back to school after being put on the cannabis protocol.
When you think that it was used in many medicines and to created many products such as rope and paper before DuPont and Hearst scuttled it in the 30's so they could make vast profits off their environmentally devastating wood pulp papers production and chemically devastating ropes, plastics and cloth, you might wonder if we have been sold out environmentally and from a health standpoint so Moguls could reap great profits at the expense of the people. Severe health problems, often CAUSED by the pharmaceuticals that are pushed as being safe and effective despite all evidence to the contrary, need to be addressed.
It is a travesty that people's very lives are being compromised and even sacrificed on a wide-scale basis for Profits. The People Need to be heard and acknowledged over the corporations which care little for human health or life while pursuing the almighty dollar. The Congress people of RI who are being paid by our hard work and taxes, and who we chose to work FOR US, not the CORPORATIONS, need to stop working on laws and unnecessary taxes that hurt the people while giving the Corporations judgements that result in Billions of dollars they take offshore anyway.
Friday, April 1, 2016 Report this