At 5 months old, Quincy began having seizures. That was in 2002.

Today, after trying over 20 antiepileptic drugs, Quincy’s mother, Maria la France — who stresses that she does not use marijuana nor give it to her son due to its illegality — has made the following YouTube video pleading for the State of Iowa to allow her son to try marijuana for his seizures. The video, titled Legalize Medical Marijuana Iowa, is chock full of information about marijuana’s use in epilepsy, as well as the harmful side effects her son has experienced from pharmaceutical medication. I’ve embedded the full video below.

Maria explains how she’s lost all hope and ran out of options…until she found out about kids in other states with Quincy’s condition benefiting from natural cannabis:



Quincy, after a bout of series. Photo from Maria la France’s Facebook.

“Recently, the news is reporting about marijuana stopping seizures, and no, these kids are not getting high. The plant is ground, and heated into an oil that is put into liquid or pill. I found some incredible information on marijuana, or cannabis, as it used to be called before it was made illegal. Cannabis has been used to treat epilepsy and cancer in Israel since the 1970s. And it was legalized in California in 1996 for epilepsy. I thought I left no stone unturned…I had never even heard of this!” “Now, knowing its legal in other states, makes me feel trapped, and ripped off. On top of that, foreign countries are filing patents in the US for the individual cannabinoids.” “I love Quincy’s neurologist. She is awesome. But all she could do legally was prescribe Quincy synthetic THC, called Marinol. This has no cannabinoids, or CBD, and it’s not what’s helping these other kids. Doctors are slowly becoming aware of the benefits, but while it’s federally illegal, it’s not going to get any research funds, and it’s slow going. What kind of torture is this, for a parent to learn of a treatment that’s not available, and not legal?”

“He has all kinds of seizures, and some, he gets hurt so badly. Most of these I didn’t photograph, because that’s not how I want to remember my baby. We try our best to prevent seizures. He has a hockey helmet with a face guard, but that doesn’t always help. Many a time I’ve tried to use the bathroom, or make dinner, only to find him seizing on the floor. Despite of all this, we try to be a normal, happy family. Knowing that we tried everything for Quincy helps give us peace. We hold onto him when he walks, or uses a wheelchair. One of us sleeps on nighttime seizure duty. We try to be with him at all times. We try to accept this is our life, and just make the most of it. Unless there’s another treatment that might work.

–Maria la France, narrating her YouTube slideshow

WARNING: The last minute of this video is very graphic. Viewer discretion is advised:

The former Chair of the Iowa Epilepsy Foundation testified in support of medical marijuana at the 2009 Iowa Board of Pharmacy medical marijuana hearings (click link for his speech). Research on how marijuana helps epilepsy, alzheimer’s, cancer, cancer, oh and cure cancer, is becoming more available as countries buck the US military-industrial-complex motivated War on Drugs scam and instead do their own research on the many benefits of cannabis.

Follow WeedPress on Facebook for more articles. If you’re a patient and would like to share your story through WeedPress, let me know on the Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana Facebook page and I’ll get to it as soon as I’m able.

If more stories like this come out in the open, medical marijuana will become a reality in Iowa.