Letter: Medical cannabis is effective treatment

As a mother of a son with epilepsy, I stay up-to-date enough to know that Iowans cannot wait any longer for access to the medicine that helps when all other options have failed. My son (and thousands of other children and adults) need access to medical cannabis as a lifesaving treatment.

I have read the existing research and clinical trials that declare medical cannabis as a safe and effective treatment and my son's doctors have decided that it is an option for him as well.

Jennifer Husmann tried to use her opinion to spread incorrect information in her April 15 column 'Wait to expand medical cannabis in Iowa.” Husmann insinuated that Epidiolex helps with all seizure disorders when, in fact, it is only been proven effective medicine for two rare forms of epilepsy; forms which my son and several others do not have. Furthermore, it will not be helpful for the list of other conditions that benefit from medical cannabis therapies. And to say definitively that it will be available next year is untrue - it is not known when, or even if, it will become available.

The proposed process for access to medical cannabis will require doctor recommendation, lab testing, and pharmacist approval, among a number of other procedures. This medical program will not be, in any way, connected to recreational use; it is a low-THC medicine that offers zero value to the recreational user. The program will be strictly regulated in every step of the process.

It saddens me when people of power manipulate their roles in trying to scare people. Cannabis is medicine.

Brienna Decker

Cedar Falls