Sarah Wilkinson is an Alberta mom who loves her epileptic daughter very much, and the only thing that has helped her daughter get some relief from the almost constant seizures that she experienced in the past is a cannabis prescription. In 2013 Wilkinson started t use extraction to get cannabis oil to treat her daughter, and the oil is extracted from dried marijuana. Until recently Sarah purchased the plant material from a grower who was licensed and the use of a prescription provided by an Alberta Children’s Hospital neurologist. When Wilkinson went to have the prescription renewed in July the physician declined to renew it because the Alberta Health Services position that does not support using marijuana on pediatric patients who have epilepsy, and the hospital policy is now based on the AHS position.

No one would argue that a cannabis proscription for a child should ever be provided without careful evaluation and medical need. The case of Sarah Wilkinson’s daughter Mia in Alberta is not typical though, the 8 year old girl suffers from seizures that can threaten her very life. In spite of trying a wide variety of anti convulsive drugs Mia would suffer 100 or more seizures in a single day before the cannabis prescription was provided. Since Mia started the cannabis oil treatment the child has not had a single seizure, yet the AHS refuses to even consider that her case may require special consideration instead of a blanket policy. Mia was seen at the St. Catharines, Ontario Canadian Cannabis Clinic after the Alberta physician would not renew the cannabis prescription, and Sarah now has the new prescription she needs to get the dried marijuana that has been so effective at stopping Mia’s seizures. What do you think about the position of AHS?