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People are lighting up all over the country
They call it, "The Green Rush"
Marijuana has moved out of the back allies
and into the open
"Happy Cannabis Cup you all!"
In some states it's legal to grow
to sell
to smoke
And marijuana could be legalized in a city near you
So easy to get
And many think, so harmless
But when the smoke clears
is marijuana bad for you?
Or could pot actually be good for you?
Marijuana is better than all those pills for you, in terms of treating?
Yeah!
I travelled the world for answers
What does marijuana do to you?
What does it do to your kids?
A special investigation: "WEED"
Our journey begins here
in this small town home
nestled in the mountains
with a family who has never allowed TV cameras in before
and you are going to soon learn why
This is so pretty out here
Yeah!
They live in Colorado
one of two states where it's legal to smoke pot medically
and recreationally
But here,
it's also taboo to residents like Paige Figi
and her husband, Matt
I'm sure it was mentioned to us
by someone, "Hey you should try this"
I thought, "No way!"
You thought "that's fringe stuff?"
No way, not in a million years
No
but in this area
marijuana is far from fringe
Four joints, and do you want Island Sweet Skunk?
medical dispensaries are everywhere
Hey welcome guys
people are smoking in private clubs
and public festivals
but none of this is for Matt
he's a military man
and marijuana would be a career-ender
I grew up in Wisconsin in a well-loving family
I was educationed like, "That's a drug!"
"You don't do that."
And I never did
but just decades ago
marijuana was a legitimate medication
also called, "Cannabis"
prescribed by doctors and dispensed by pharmacies
but that all changed in 1930
"Relentless warfare..."
Henry Anslinger
the United States' first Drug Czar
for him, public enemy number one
you guessed it, marijuana
this guy saw how he could increase the budget
of his department
by having it his mission
going after marijuana
you know, saying that there's this drug
the Mexican migrant workers are smoking
and it's "Loco Weed"
and it's going to make them crazy
and they're going to *** your women
he got the anti-marijuana message out
through news reports
and then came this...
the film, "*** Madness"
portraying the users of marijuana as unproductive
crazed
people are still afraid of what pot can do to them
in many ways to have defined our attitudes now for 70 years
yeah
marijuana then became illegal
in 1937
and by 1970
it was a Schedule 1 controlled substance
the government was saying
it had no medicinal value
and had a high potential for abuse
all reasons why the Figi's stayed away from marijuana
until
this
and this might be hard for some of you to watch
this is their daughter Charlotte
having a seizure
we just thought it was one random seizure
nothing to really do? "Right." No medications?
it's a fluke
right
a fluke made sense
after all, Charlotte, nicknamed "Charlie"
was born perfectly healthy
a fraternal twin to sister chase
Charlie always had big, big smiles
just happy kids
easy
yeah, easy
very much so
so it was around 3 months?
"Yeah." You said that when you first noticed
that Charlie had a seizure
I was changing her diaper, well, putting a new diaper on from after the bath
and her eyes just started flickering
it led to the first of many trips to the ER
they did the million dollar workup:
MRI, EEG
spinal tap
you know they did the whole work-up
and found nothing
and sent us home
No abnormal blood test? No abnormal scan?
and developing normally, too
talking and walking the same day as her twin
nothing was behind yet
by the time she was 2, though
the seizures had become constant
and started to take their toll
on their once happy, joyful little girl
she started to really decline
cognitively, she was just slipping away and wasn't keeping up with her twin
the Figis finally found an answer
it was aweful news
Dravet syndrome
it is severe, intractable epilepsy
the seizures start during the first year of life
and are unstoppable
difficult to control
and very damaging
severe behavior problems
attention deficit
hyperactivity
the self-injury
banging her head on the floor
pulling her hair out
like a possessed child
this isn't your perfect happy
Charlotte
it was a race against time
many Dravet kids die young
in early childhood
Charlotte was almost 3
for the next 2 years
the Figis tried everything
strange diets
acupuncture
and dozens of powerful drugs, like ***
Ativan
phenylbarbitol
but nothing seemed to help
even worse
some of the medications nearly killed her
after one dose she stops breathing
after two doses, her heart will stop
did you have to do CPR on her then, yourself? Yeah.
I remember when her heart stopped and I had her pulse
and I lost her pulse
there was just nothing
the ambulance was on its way
she survived
"You're OK. Mommy's here."
but now it was Fall of 2011
and Charlotte was 5 years old
when things were at their worst
she'd just seize all night. And the kids are sleeping
either in my room or next door - they can hear her
seizures scream all night
50 times a night
and Chase would come in in the morning
and just...this is her twin
and just hug her and like rub her head
and just say "I'm so glad you survived through the night last night"
Matt had been deployed to Afghanistan
and the only thing he could do to help
was start scouring the internet
and he stumbled onto this video
of a child using marijuana
so how's everything going?
we had 4 days without a seizure
Like wow. He's having success specifically with Dravet's. And it's natural
and while he couldn't ever imagine taking marijuana himself
he was now in the stunning position
of recommending it for Charlotte
I was like, "We need to do this!"
...And I said, "I don't know."
And then
Charlotte's condition got worse
300 seizures a week
almost 2 every hour
she was not talking or moving
basically catatonic
as a last resort
doctors wanted to either prescribe a powerful veterinary drug
used on epileptic dogs
or put Charlotte in a medically induced coma
so her brain and body could rest
For Paige, those were not good options
But maybe - just maybe - marijuana now was
but she was about to find out
how hard that would be
this isn't "go to the pharmacy and pick up your medicine"
there was no protocol
when we come back
what will the Figis do?
and what would you do
if this were your daughter
I had resigned myself, "I don't think she's going to survive this."
we've seen her flatline in the hospital. We've said, "Goodbye."
you're listening to Matt and Paige Figi
describe their own daughter
what would you do
if this were your child?
Charlotte Figi had an extreme form of epilepsy
her body was so frail
that any seizure could kill her
with no traditional treatment left to try and the clock ticking away
her parents decided to try marijuana
Charlotte was just 5 years old
you need a card in order to be able to get the cannabis from a pharmacy
doctors have prescribed it
you need 2 doctors in Colorado
to get the card for a jouvenile
or a child
it was hard
we were the first young child
and they said, "No." Everyone said, "No. No. No. No."
certainly her age played a role
in my hesitance
Doctor Alan Shackelford is a Harvard-trained physician
he's also among a handful of doctors in Colorado who
give prescriptions for medical marijuana
from the moment Charlotte entered his office
he knew she was in trouble
while he was just examining her
she had 2 seizures
she had failed everything
there were no more options for her
everything had been tried
except cannabis
here's how scientists think it might work
marijuana is made of 2 ingredients
THC - that's the psychoactive part that makes you high
and CBD, also called Cannabidiol
it's the CBD that scientists think modulates electrical and chemical activity
to help quiet the excessive activity in the brain
that causes seizures
Dr. Julie Holland is the editor of "The Pot Book"
A Complete Guide to Cannabis
for a long time the work on cannabis and epilepsy was sort of inconclusive
maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. They couldn't quite figure it out
it's only when they really started separating THC from CBD
that they found definitively that Yes, CBD seems to really stop seizures
so the Figi's needed to find something that was rare
a strain of marijuana that was low in THC
of course they didn't want Charlotte to get ***
but also high in CBD
to treat her seizures
and that wouldn't be easy
dispensaries and growers
they make their money off strains that are high in THC
I'm Joel
I'm Josh
no one knows that better
than the Stanley brothers
their family business is pot
and if you look at these clean cut guys
and what you see surprises you
don't worry
they've heard it all before
when we were on the corner they were like, "Whoah. Hold on a second"
"Did you finish High School?"
they all not only finished high school
but also college
and in some cases, graduate school
now they are some of Colorado's biggest growers
and dispensary owners
they produce up to 600 pounds a medical marijuana a year
and much of that marijuana
is high in THC
but here
at their remote farm in this undisclosed location in the mountains
it takes a lot of plants. We're allowed to grow 6 per patient
they have been growing something different
something they call "Revolutionary"
This is greenhouse 1
Greenhouse 1. Yes. Welcome to paradise
behind closed doors and under tight security
we enter what the Stanley's call
the garden of eden