Many of you may know the story of Alexis Bortell, the now 12-year-old girl who has intractable epilepsy. Her family, originally from Texas, has moved to Colorado to have better and legal access to the medicine that has kept Alexis seizure-free for over 2 years: a strain of cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope.
“As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it’s illegal in Texas,” Alexis told KDVR in Denver.
Alexis and several others – including former NFL pro Marvin Washington – are now making news for a lawsuit they have filed against the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that seeks to overturn the illegality of medical marijuana nationwide.
This is a story we covered here at The Marijuana Times over the summer, but it is one that is hitting the national news wires only now, including a recent story by ABC News and a story by Fox News, all thanks to the extended piece mentioned above from KDVR.
In fact, a Google News search turns up no less than 9 stories about Alexis and the lawsuit, all posted in the last several days, and that will just be the tip of the iceberg. The toughness and perseverance of Alexis, combined with the now legal way she gets the medicine that has changed her life, coupled with the notion of a pre-teen girl suing the Attorney General of the United States to legalize medical cannabis is the stuff viral stories are made of.
All of which is a major positive for Alexis and children like her who are being given a second chance at life thanks to cannabis, as well as a positive for cannabis users everywhere. Activists have been fighting for decades to spread the word about the cannabis plant, but looking back we can see what a long process that would have been without the rise of the Internet.
In the next few weeks, tens of millions of people will hear Alexis’ story, most for the first time. Many will think about their children and what they would do if faced with similar circumstances. Many of those will look into the issue on a deeper level, and many of those people will become more vocal in their support of allowing cannabis to be used nationwide for medical reasons.
Debates of adult use legalization will remain, but the vast majority of people agree that if cannabis can help someone medically, they should be able to use it legally.
