Jimmie E. Gates

USA TODAY NETWORK - MISSISSIPPI

A bill is on the way to the governor that will allow other pharmacies to join the University of Mississippi Medical Center to manufacture and sell marijuana oil for the treatment of children who suffer with epilepsy seizures.

The House passed Senate Bill 2610 on Thursday that amends Harper Grace’s Law, which was passed three years ago and named after then-2-year-old Harper Grace Durval who suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy.

The legislation passed in 2014 allowed marijuana oil to be used to treat children in Mississippi who suffer from epilepsy seizures. It also removed the cannabis extract oil from the state’s illegal drugs list.

The original Harper Grace legislation only allowed UMMC Pharmacy to mix the compound and dispense cannabis oil. Senate Bill 2610 says with federal and state regulatory approval, UMMC Pharmacy or another pharmacy or laboratory in the state can prepare and dispense the drug.

Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, who presented the bill on the House floor, said the bill will allow pharmacists across the state to dispense the oil when clinical trials begin.

“Other pharmacies will be able to compound this,” Powell said.

Rep. Mark Formby, R-Picayune, questioned how long it is taking for the cannabis oil to be available for use in Mississippi.

“Is this still years away?,” Formby asked Powell.

“It is a slow process,” Powell responded.

Although the Mississippi Legislature passed the Harper Grace Law in 2014, the necessary federal approval has yet to be obtained before testing and ultimate use can begin.

Dr. Brad Ingram, director of the Pediatric Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said in January the hospital was in the process of submitting a 32-page proposal to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow the oil for treatment of five to 10 of the most sick children with the oil.

However, Ingram said it will likely be late spring or summer at the earliest before UMMC would receive permission to begin the trial use of cannabis oil on patients.

Ingram said a lot of work has gone into the proposal, but he said federal approval is out of his control.

Harper Grace’s mother, Ashley Durval, has said she knows people who are getting cannabis oil from other states and she can get it if she wants to, but she discourages such a practice.

“It puts what we are fighting for in jeopardy,” Durval said.

UMMC said any such clinical trial established there would initially involve children with refractory or more serious types of epilepsy.