With all traditional treatments exhausted, Marie was at her wit’s end and that was when this courageous mum took it on herself to find a solution.
‘And so, at age 9, my son became the youngest person with a medical-marijuana license in Rhode Island,’ she says.
Baking the cannabis oil into cookies, Marie soon zeroed in on the perfect dosage for her boy.
‘It left him clear-eyed and alert, without the constant pain-furrow in his brow or the off-the-wall rages.’
Eventually they switched the cookies for a simple oil dropper that could be used at school.
‘My son’s life has changed because of it.’
The laws surrounding medicinal marijuana in the United States, however, mean Marie and her boy are not on easy street just yet.
Not all states allow medical marijuana licenses for the treatment of autism, and on a national level it is still illegal to grow, sell, or take marijuana.
‘If we bring our son’s marijuana when we travel, we worry that we’re committing interstate drug trafficking,’ she says.
Marie hopes the law will change so her boy can continue his happier, calmer life.
‘He shouldn’t have to go back to days of howling pain and self-injury.’