Marijuana raid threatens son's health, woman says

An Edmonton mother is worried about the health of her severely-disabled son after police raided a local medical marijuana dispensary last week.

Katie Ann Lepine's 15-year-old son Christopher suffers from spina bifida, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and a heart condition.

Treating any one of Christopher's conditions would be difficult. However, taken together, Lepine said it is nearly impossible to find medication that doesn't make him feel worse. 

For instance, the medication he uses to manage his spina bifida puts stress on his already weakened heart. He would often have to be cared for in the pediatric intensive care unit.

When Christopher's doctor started prescribing medical marijuana, Lepine saw an immediate change.

"When he first started doing it, we noticed a difference. He was waking up. He was doing all kinds of things, he was sitting up," she said.

Christopher had been dealing with two or three seizures a day. They stopped.  He also stayed awake for longer periods during the day and was more responsive to his mother and his live-in caregiver.

"Oh man, I was so happy when he was sitting up there," she said.

"It's changed my life seeing how he is reacting."

Not sure where to go next

Health Canada says people with prescriptions for medical marijuana must deal with one of the 18 licensed sellers listed on its website. None of them are in Alberta. 

Rather than get Christopher's medication through the mail, his caretaker instead bought it from the Mobile Access Compassionate Resources Society [MACROS].

A non-profit, MACROS has been run out of the back of an Edmonton hemp shop for over a decade. Last week, members of ALERT's GREEN team raided the dispensary and arrested its owners.

With MACROS gone, Lepine said the family is without a convenient source to get his medical marijuana.

Aside from just a place to purchase the medication, Lepine said the dispensary was a place where she could get advice and support from others with marijuana prescriptions, vital information she says is lacking with Health Canada's approach.

Now she worries Christopher might regress, even return to the hospital, once his current medication is done unless they can find a reliable way of filling his prescription.

"I don't know what we're going to do now," Lepine said.

"I'm just hoping that everything changes. Hopefully we will get some more somewhere."