8-Year-Old Mexican Girl Paves Way to Using Medical Cannabis Legally

Cannabis is banned by Mexico's General Law of Health. However, a judge has allowed the import of a cannabis derivative, cannabidiol, for the treatment of eight-year-old Grace, who has a rare disease that makes her suffer 400 epileptic convulsions every day. The little girl suffers from Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, characterized by powerful epileptic fits, even while she sleeps. Grace's father Raul Elizalde said, "Grace acts like a baby girl no more than six months old. She depends on all of us. The judge's decision is very courageous." On August 17, 2015, Judge Martin Santos extended legal protection to the authorities who permit Graciela Elizalde's parents to import a medicine containing cannabidiol.

The family's attorney Fabian Aguinaco said, "During the case, lawyers appealed several articles in this law on grounds that they were unconstitutional because they violate several human rights such as the right to live without pain."

Grace's parents have tried everything for their daughter's recover, from anti-convulsive medications that are legal in Mexico to a corpus callosotomy in 2013, a surgical procedure that entails cutting the band of fibers connecting the hemispheres of the brain. The attorney said, "All to no avail, which was why the parents decided to try cannabidiol, a substance that relaxes the muscles of the body."

In order to get the substance into the country, the parents will travel later this month to the United States, where specialists will prescribe the exact treatment for Grace, a condition imposed by the judge for bringing cannabidiol into Mexico.

Fernando Belaunzaran, presidential candidate for the leftist PRD party, said, "Grace's case shows the benefits of the plant. The current situation shows that the war on drugs is a complete failure and that Grace, at her 8 years of age, can be removing the first brick from the wall of prohibition of cannabis in Mexico."

Source-IANS