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Cannabis and Cancer

By Prindle News Hound
20 Jan 2015

An Australian man was arrested and stripped of his parental rights after treating his 2-year-old daughter with cannabis oil. Adam Koessler’s daughter has been diagnosed with stage-4 neuroblastoma, which develops from immature nerve cells. The cannabis oil was used in addition to diet changes, chemotherapy, and nautropathic medicine.  Although he says that his daughter’s quality of life was greatly improved by the use of supplemental medicinal-grade cannabis oil, medical marijuana treatments are illegal in Australia.

As a result, Koessler was stripped of his parental rights and arrested on January 2nd, and charged with possessing dangerous drugs and supplying them to a minor. Nearly 114,000 supporters have signed a petition to drop his charges and legalize the practice. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews plans to legalize it by the end of 2015. Many argue that he should be allowed to do whatever possible to improve his daughter’s quality of life, especially when she is terminally ill. He says that the cannabis oil assisted in reducing the girl’s pain and made her look alive again. Koessler was originally banned from seeing his daughter at all, but that was changed on January 16. His daughter has been in the ICU since January 9. Koesseler can now visit his daughter as long a medical practitioner is present, and he can have no contact with the girl’s mother except to organize visits.

Should parents be allowed to treat children with cannabis oil? Does being terminally ill change that perspective at all? Should a parent be banned from seeing terminally ill children? If it is supposed to soon be legalized, should he be arrested? Do the mitigating circumstances outweigh the crime? Let us know in the comments.

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