At least three bills are expected to be before lawmakers in Olympia during the upcoming legislative session that could provide clarity to the legal gray area surrounding medical marijuana.
Right now, medical marijuana is largely unregulated in Washington state. Recreational stores complain that medical retail shops aren't required to pay taxes or jump through the same administrative hoops. Without legal clarity, medical marijuana stores face the threat of being shut down.
One group of parents are circulating a petition to preserve the right to administer medicinal cannabis to their children.
Tamsin Gebhart calls Cannabidiol, or CBD, a 'miracle drug'. Her son Sam has the rare and debilitating Mowat Wilson Syndrome which can cause hundreds of seizures per day. Gebhart gives her son CBD oil capsules in his food twice a day. She says seizures are all but gone, and Sam no longer suffers from the sometimes dangerous side effects of traditional drugs.
"We had a lot of mixed feelings from people when we decided to start this. But I was just at my wits end," said Gebhart, who is not a marijuana user.
She says many people including her own mother were skeptical. But Gebhart points out, the oil is very low in THC and she is not simply getting her son high.
"It's the other drugs that were getting him high," she says.
Gebhart is worried that without legal clarity, Dama, the company that produces the oil, will be forced to close.
"If for some reason it became illegal here, we would uproot our family and move," she says. "The reality is, if we lose it, we potentially lose Sam."
New Leaf Enterprises provides Dama Oil for free to Gebhart and 30 families like hers. For more than a year, the Leaf of Hope families have used CBD-based cannabis oil to ease the symptoms of epilepsy, autism and cancer. The company said if they're unable to sell in recreational marijuana shops, the program would be forced to end in June.
