Mum Gives 9-Year-Old Marijuana

Writer Marie Myung-Ok Lee pushes marijuana on her 9-year-old son. She mixes it in cookies and teas. She offers him hits from a bong-like vapouriser — whatever it takes to get him high. But she’s not some kind of hard-partying “if it feels good, do it” hippie mum.

Lee is trying to help her autistic son, who spends large parts of his days and nights in pain from an inflammatory bowel condition and the results of an operation on his spinal cord. And also from aggression that is symptomatic of his autism.

Does it work? Mmmm kind of. Is it illegal? Sort of but not really.

Lee lives in Rhode Island, one of 13 states that has legalised the use of marijuana for medical reasons. Her son’s doctor signed off on it. The benefit to her son is better sleep, less aggression and a way to avoid “sedating, antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal.”

Writing for Double X, an excellent new smarty pants women-focused Web site that launched yesterday, Lee explains how she settled on pot, how she gets it an, so far, whether it’s working.

But since we started him on his “special tea,” J’s little face, which is sometimes a mask of pain, has softened. He smiles more. For the last year, his individual education plan at his special-needs school was
full of blanks, recording “no progress” because he spent his whole day an irritated, frustrated mess. Now, April’s report shows real progress, including “two community outings with the absence of aggressions.

Anybody else out there medicating with pot? What do you think of this mom’s solution? What about the criminalisation of marijuana in the first place?

Photo: DoubleX