A medical marijuana ‘miracle’ Event highlights mother of son who found healing in cannabis

Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close A medical marijuana ‘miracle’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Illinois Women in Cannabis will honor a Jerseyville mother next week for helping her son find a medical marijuana treatment that resulted in remission of his Crohn’s disease.

Wendy Turner and her son, Coltyn Turner, 18, of Jerseyville, will be featured during IWC’s Satellite Networking Event at 6:30 p.m. July 25 at Hamilton’s in Jacksonville.

Coltyn was 11 when he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease after a near-drowning during a Boy Scout outing. It was only after his family found medicinal marijuana that he began to reclaim his health, they said.

“In 2013, Coltyn got sick from his medicine that he was taking,” Wendy Turner said. “We were given three options: Take more medicine, which could give him lymphoma; have a colostomy bag for the rest of his life; or try alternative medicine. That’s when I started researching cannabis.”

Prescription medications being used to treat Coltyn were hard on his body and health, she said. His lymph nodes swelled up to the size of golf balls, he found it hard to move, one medicine caused bone deterioration, another gave him nosebleeds that lasted 15 minutes or more.

Coltyn and his dad traveled to Colorado in 2014 to try cannabis as a treatment. After eating a cannabis-infused brownie, Coltyn began feeling his health improve, he said.

“I began to see positive effects and I saw them immediately,” Coltyn said. “I started regaining energy, I wasn’t in much pain, I actually had an appetite for the first time in a long time. That’s just when we were making brownies in hotel rooms, trying whatever we could.”

Seeing the positive effects medical marijuana had on Coltyn’s health, the family moved to Colorado. Coltyn found an oil mixture that worked for him in pill form and, after seven months, a colonoscopy revealed that Coltyn’s Crohn’s disease was in remission.

“It was a miracle, it really was,” Wendy Turner said. “Words can’t describe that feeling, really. We feel so blessed and so happy that this worked because we were losing him and we didn’t know what to do. It was a godsend.”

The family was able to return to Jerseyville earlier this year, thanks to Illinois’ medical marijuana program.

Wendy Turner set up the Facebook advocacy group Coltyn’s Crue, which began as a way to inform family of Coltyn’s condition. Now Wendy and Coltyn are using the group to spread the word about medical marijuana and to advocate for research for Crohn’s disease and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Coltyn advised anyone battling Crohn’s disease — or any condition that may be eased by medical marijuana — to be patient in finding a solution that works for them.

“I think a lot of people want instant gratification,” Coltyn said. “Unfortunately, that’s not what cannabis is going to provide. You have to find what works best for you and your disease, but don’t give up. One form of intake may not work for you, but there’s a whole spectrum.”

Tickets for the networking event are$10 and are available online at bit.ly/2JEBMet.

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.