Cannabis for Children

  • Many parents of children with serious diseases such as Dravet syndrome, autism, or cancer are now turning to medical cannabis
  • Administering medical cannabis to children remains a highly controversial topic

Thanks to modern technology and the ability to spread information at lightning speed worldwide, medical cannabis is growing literally like a weed. Surprisingly, most known stories about the healing effects of cannabis involve young children. Administering any unauthorized or forbidden substances to children is still quite shocking today, however, when it comes to medical cannabis, this herb is in many cases able to end unnecessary suffering for many children, or even directly save their lives. The question remains, at what age is it appropriate to start giving children medical cannabis?

Cannabis for Children – At What Age?

Today, you would still have a hard time convincing most parents to find a doctor who would prescribe medical cannabis for a cold or a broken bone. However, cannabis cannot be denied its enormous potential for treating symptoms of many serious childhood diseases.

When it comes to treating symptoms of more serious conditions, such as seizures and severe pain, many doctors are more than open to cannabis treatment.

More than three hundred pediatric oncologists from three different states where cannabis is already legal for medical purposes participated in an ASCO meeting survey. As a result, 92% of them would recommend medical cannabis to their patients.

For most doctors, deciding whether it is better to participate in cannabis treatment or stay in the background is a matter of ethics. Peter Clark in his 2003 article published in Medical Science Monitor claims that denying children access to medical cannabis is a violation of sound ethics.

"Preventing doctors from prescribing medicine that alleviates pain and suffering for their patients is an absolute violation of the doctor-patient relationship from a medical perspective."

Even though studies focusing on the healing effects of cannabis are currently happening more than ever, we still lack crucial information about the long-term effects of its daily application. Not to mention that in most countries worldwide, cannabis is still considered a harmful substance, which only slows down the entire research process.

To the question of at what age it is safe to administer medical cannabis to children, we are currently helped mainly by unofficial stories of parents whose children have already benefited from it. We will look at some of these stories in the following text.

Despite the lack of quality clinical research, medical cannabis is already being used relatively successfully to treat a few key diseases, which we will explore in today's article.

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