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In 2023, São Paulo enacted a law enabling the dispensing of cannabidiol (CBD)-based medicines across public and private health facilities associated with the Brazilian Unified Health System in Brazil’s most populous state with more than 44 million people. The law made CBD-based medicine accessible and free.
The reform happened thanks to Brazilian mothers who fought for a decade for their children’s life-saving medicine. They used every means they could think of – civil disobedience, court petitions, marches and politics, writes Gabriela Sá Pessoa for the Associated Press.
Janaína Silva is a mother of a four-year-old boy, Murillo, who has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare, complex and severe type of epilepsy that is usually diagnosed before the age of four. She shared the story of how CBD has helped reduce his seizures.
"From five minutes of agony, it's now just seconds," Silva said. Only a few months ago, Murillo's seizures would have lasted much longer and would have been more intense. Now, thanks to a regular dose of liquid CBD acquired for free through the state public health system, his seizures are significantly reduced.
In a drugstore, a 30-milliliter bottle of CBD that Murillo uses costs around 800 reais ($180), which is more than half of his mother's monthly wage as an office assistant. The federal government has not made CBD-based medical products accessible for free at the national level. More moms are pushing hard to change this.
Maria Aparecida Carvalho, 56, a former bank employee is one of those moms leading the fight. Her daughter, Clárian, was diagnosed with another rare type of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome, wrote Sá Pessoa. This type of epilepsy is so severe that it can cause sudden death. When all other medications failed, she decided to try the alternative – CBD. With the help of a lawyer, Carvalho was granted special court permission to start growing marijuana at home and has been producing the extract for her daughter and 200 other patients.
Carvalho was inspired by the story of Charlotte Figi.
Charlotte, born with Dravet Syndrome, became famous worldwide after appearing in the 2013 CNN documentary hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta called “Weed.” She “was seizing 50 times a day, on life support, her prognosis looking worse by the day,” Charoltte's mother Paige Figi previously told Benzinga. “I turned to scientists studying Cannabidiol as a potential therapy for epilepsy. I searched for experts in Colorado to help create an extract under strict breeding, farming, extracting, and testing criteria…what we now call CBD.”
It turned out that this non-intoxicating hemp extract, high in CBD and low in THC was extremely effective in treating Charlotte’s epilepsy, allowing her to live a non-medical, pharmaceutical-free life.
Charlotte inspired the creation of Epidiolex, the groundbreaking FDA-approved cannabinoid seizure medication. The first FDA-authorized CBD medicine Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ:JAZZ), Epidiolex was first approved for treating seizures connected to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. In 2022, Epidiolex was approved for treating seizures related to tuberous sclerosis complex.
Charlotte Figi was the catalyst, or as Gupta said she was “more than an individual, she was an entire movement.” Indeed, the movement impacted the entire planet.
Medical marijuana use in Brazil is growing. According to data from a business intelligence company, Kaya Mind, the number of medical marijuana users grew 130% from 2022 to 2023, with more than 430,000 Brazilians receiving treatment last year.
In June, Brazil's Supreme Court voted to decriminalize the possession of cannabis for personal use, marking a significant shift in the nation's drug policy. This decision, which addresses the application of Article 28 of the Drug Law from 2006, aims to differentiate personal use from trafficking and could significantly reduce Brazil's prison overpopulation.
Under the current law in Brazil, the use of marijuana for scientific and medical use is legal, but cultivation is still illegal. This means that raw materials and oils must be imported and therefore are more expensive.
However, mothers of sick children in need of CBD-based medicine are continuing to lead the fight for reform that would allow easier and possibly free access to these life-saving plant-based medicines.
Continue reading Sá Pessoa’s story at the Associated Press.
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Posted In: JAZZ
