An eight-year-old boy with Tourette’s saw his involuntary tics alleviated after being given daily doses of cannabis oil.
The unnamed youngster, believed to be from Poland, was left suicidal and housebound – until his random arm movements and vocal tics almost halved in severity after being given a THC-based oil, according to a report in the European Journal of Medical Case reports.
After trying a number of medicines, medics eventually turned to supplementing daily doses of risperidone and guanfacine, a drug used to combat the boy’s ADHD, with THC.
The boy’s dose of THC was gradually increased over the space of two months, from 0.7mg to 3.6mg daily, according to the team at the Medical University of Warsaw.
The boy, his parents and teachers said the stronger dosage had ‘positive effects’ on both his tics and behaviour. He was better able to focus at school, attended all of his classes and even began to spend time outdoors again.
Doctors bumped up his dose three times over several more weeks, from 5.4mg to 18.2mg and then the ‘remarkably high’ 29.4mg.
Before being given the THC oil, he scored 68 on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale – a scale used across the world. This dropped down to 31 after two months, before being slashed even further to just 28 after four months of treatment.
Other than mild tiredness, no side effects of the treatment were noted, according to the case report author Dr Natalia Szejko. She said it was the first evidence to suggest cannabis-based medicines could help children with severe Tourette’s.
CBD oil cures woman’s severe eczema
A woman who was left housebound due to the severity of her eczema claims that cannabis oil has given her back her life. Beth Cusack, 29, has suffered from crippling eczema for the past four years. She had to quit work as going outside increased the pain she was experiencing, despite being prescribed different medication.Then she came across an advert on social media for CBD oil, which has cleared up her skin and given her back her life.
Beth, from Solihull, West Midlands, said: “I didn’t think there was any way to make my skin better until I found CBD oil. I tried so many courses of medication, creams and anything that I was told would help my skin – but it never did.
“Since I’ve taken the oil it has truly saved my life – I am no longer in pain and I can happily leave the house now without feeling in pain or embarrassed.”
Britain’s first cannabis-infused restaurant is to open next month. The Canna Kitchen in Brighton will serve legal and non-psychoactive cannabinoids in its dishes such as CBD, CBG and CBN, as well as naturally occurring flavours and fragrances from the cannabis plant itself.
Examples of dishes on offer include Zaa’tar roast cauliflower, hemp heart tabbouleh, smoked aubergine, sesame cavolo nero and CBD tahini cream, and buckwheat and beetroot pancake, roast roots, rocket with CBD cashew cheese.
Sam Evolution, director of The Canna Kitchen, said: “The numerous beneficial properties of the cannabis plant have always inspired me. It is one of the most versatile crops in nature, with potential applications in almost every area of our modern life.
“Cannabis is a true gift, and one that if utilised properly could begin to remedy many of the ecological challenges of our time.
“It also happens to be the most nutritionally complete human food source on the planet, with a host of therapeutic benefits.
“We are seeking to change misconceptions around this plant by introducing it to people in a form they may not have encountered before.”
No jump in cannabis-impaired driving since legalisation in Canada
Canadian police have not seen a spike in cannabis-impaired driving in the month since legalization.
The Canadian Press canvassed police forces and provincial and territorial Crown prosecutors across the country and while some said it was too early to provide data, others said initial numbers and anecdotal impressions suggest stoned driving isn’t on the rise.
Police forces in Vancouver, Regina, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Truro, N.S., and Kensington, P.E.I., all said they hadn’t noticed a significant change in driver behaviour since pot was legalized on 17 October.