Cannabis and Children

Those outside the cannabis movement find the thought of children using cannabis scary and

frightening. Yet, cannabis can be an effective medical treatment as Chicago NORML members

and guests learned during the 2021 420 Cannabis Health Fair. Hadassah El is a Certified

Massage Therapist and wellness coach in Chicago and told Felicia Santiago of Chicago NORML

“Cannabis has been a part of my life as far as I could remember. My father was a cannabis user. I

didn’t realize that he was using cannabis. I thought he just had some great, healthy cigarettes.” El

feels she has been part of the health and wellness industry all her life. “My mother was a health

and wellness coach for over 30-40 years now. I’ve just always been in this space.”

In February 2014 she learned about a networking opportunity for the small Illinois cannabis

industry at the time. It served as a launchpad for learning and greater knowledge. “I learned so

much more about cannabis for healing and medicine.” She became aware of the upcoming start

in Illinois’ medical marijuana program and registered her daughter to be one of the first patients.

Santiago wondered what prepared her to have an open and meaningful conversation with her

daughter’s doctor about cannabis and face possible humiliation and condemnation. El said when

the Illinois program started, her daughter was an adult, but not yet 21 and legally able to

purchase cannabis at a dispensary. She had been using cannabis medically under her mother’s

supervision for years before then.

Sometime between the age of eight to ten, “They wanted to prescribe her Valium. I had questions

about it,” such as addiction. Would the drug be needed on a temporary basis or for life, El

reflected. “I didn’t like the answers I received. Being a little crafty, I accepted the prescription. I

even filled it, but I didn’t give it to her. I used alternative methods, and I was a cannabis user at

that time. I introduced it to her then and it just seemed better. I would see her friends on Valium.

It just seems like they were out of it and not really coherent or there.”

Valium was introduced in 1963 and was celebrated for replacing barbiturates because it was more

effective with less likelihood of an overdose or abuse. In 1969, this anti-anxiety treatment became

the top-selling drug in America, holding this title through 1982. The popularity of Valium peaked

in 1978 with 2.3 billion pills being sold. More recently, pharmaceutical journalist Erik MacLaren

reports the number of admissions at treatment centers for tranquilizer use increased by about seven

times during the decade from 2003 to 2012, and admissions for Valium increased by a similar

amount. The Rolling Stones rock band was one of the first to raise the issue about the abuse of legal

anti-anxiety drugs in its 1966 hit “Mother’s Little Helper,” composed and sung by Mick Jagger and

Keith Richards. The song reached number eight on the billboard hot 100 and is about a suburban

housewife who abuses drugs to make it through the day. No drugs are named but the song says the

housewife takes a yellow pill, Valium or Pentobarbital, the barbiturate that Valium replaced. Both

pills are yellow. “Mother needs something today to calm her down / And though she’s not really

ill / There’s a little yellow pill / She goes running for the shelter of mother’s little helper,” says

the song lyrics. Jagger and Richards composed the song to contrast how legal drugs popular with

older people like Valium caused addiction but illegal substances like cannabis popular by the

young could send someone to prison. Valium is the best known out of a class of drugs called

Benzodiazepines. Award-winning science journalist Sujata Gupta reports they “latch onto a

receptor in the brain, which then activates a neighboring neurotransmitter known as gamma-aminobutyric

acid or GABA,” a naturally occurring amino acid. “GABA release makes people

calm and sleepy. The drugs can trigger that GABA rush in minutes, allowing a user to feEl

calmer almost immediately. Even though the drugs’ addictive properties have now become clear,

they remain widely available and are often prescribed for longer than the recommended for two

to four weeks. Tolerance to the drugs is thought to develop because benzodiazepines weaken the

response of receptors in the brain. That means a benzodiazepine user needs to keep ramping up

the drug’s dosage to trigger the same calming effect of GABA. The drugs are also non-specific:

they act on multiple subunits of GABA, which govern different actions, such as anxiety,

restfulness, motor control, and cognition. So even if a person goes on the drugs to alleviate social

anxiety, they are invariably altering how they think, sleep and even move.” These non-specific

actions are what l observed in Children she knew were taking Valium.

Many experience the shame and stigma of being a cannabis consumer. When a parent introduces

cannabis to a child, family members or the medical community could believe sharing this healing

plant amounts to child abuse. In preparing for a conversation with the medical establishment or

government officials, El believes “You should always come armed with your research. I already

had it in my mind this is what I wanted to do. However, I know that there are other people that

may be involved in the process, especially with a pediatrician that has to sign off on it. I would

tell any parent just as I did come armed with the research and not just go online and just grab

something. No, come with the research that is from those medical journals that the doctors and

pediatricians have to use anyway. Search peer-reviewed medical journals. Take that, hand-

copied paper printed and present the research to the physicians and then have that discussion on

their specific condition and how cannabis can help with that specific condition. I had no issue at

all when I came equipped with the information,” she said.

Online searches surface articles about medical research as do books that discuss cannabis and

various health-related issues. These resources cite detailed research papers that often have been

reviewed by doctors and then published in journals. Articles from medical journals are available

from the Chicago Public Library free of charge for any requests or for a small copying fee.

During the first quarter of 2021 from January through March, the Illinois Department of Revenue

reports the state received more tax revenue from cannabis sales than from alcohol. Cannabis

consumers often experience lines out the door at their local dispensary. El says her first

dispensary experience was of course “a lot different than it is now because so much as changed

in the medical space over the years. In the beginning, the budtenders had a lot more time to help

with which strain may help with certain conditions. I’m not really sure about that now because

we are more wide open, “as most medical dispensaries also serve the overwhelming need of

adult-use consumers. Unlike other plant medicines, cannabis has thousands of different strains,

each offering a slightly different experience. Two cannabis consumers have started their own

websites where they offer hundreds of free reviews of Illinois cannabis strains and concentrates.

Visit ILbuds.com and IllinoisNewsJoint.com.

The budtender not only helped her with finding a useful strain but in selecting an initial amount

that could be effective without being overstimulating. Most budtenders are seasoned and

experienced cannabis consumers. “El pointed out that with cannabis, there’s no such thing as an

overdose. “The most you will do is go to sleep, but you will wake up. That’s the beauty of it.”

When asked by Santiago to give the most important advice for a parent to have more peace and

confidence with a decision to use a cannabis-based remedy for their child, El said it boils down

to research. “When you do your research, that helps you be more confident and firm in your

decision. We say knowledge is power, but we know it’s applied and executed knowledge that is

power. You get the knowledge that helps you be more confident in order to move forward. “

Chicago medical doctor Audrey Tanksley shared her insights. She is board certified in internal

medicine and addiction medicine. “I am trained in integrative medicine and that is where my

expertise and passion in cannabis comes from,” she says. With few doctors willing to certify

youth for medical cannabis, she regularly serves as a consulting and reviewing physician for

parents seeking cannabis remedies for their children.

Pediatricians often refer families to doctors who specialize in the Endocannabinoid System, like

Tanksley. “We not only review the clinical data and the qualifying condition but part of that

process is a conversation with the family as they are going through. We are talking and advising

about the kinds of substances even before they get to the dispensary and… going through the

research that’s available and how it may be beneficial to their child. Also, [doctors] should be

looking and reviewing what current medications there taking, making sure that if there are any

interactions, you have a plan on how you would taper or titrate those medications so that you are

eliminating the risk of any potential interactions or any potential adverse events.” Most adult

cannabis patients have at least two visits before they receive their medicinal cannabis

certification. For pediatric patients, generally, it is at least three to four visits. “During each of

those, we are constantly having those conversations about it,” she said. After parents or adult

caregivers receive their medical cannabis card and provide cannabis to their child, Tanksley

recommends “responsible maintenance” of follow-up doctor appointments to have

“conversations and consultations about how the medicinal cannabis is helping with those

symptoms at all. “If it is not helping with those symptoms, [doctors can advise] how to titrate the

doses. There’s a huge range on the effective dose in pediatrics and so there is some trial and error

as it is with western medicine. The dispensaries and the budtenders there can be very helpful as

well. At a certain point, the whole community becomes involved.” At the point of having your

card, it becomes kind of a group hug type of interdisciplinary management of the condition

where the family is the expert in the condition and what they are seeing and what is happening.

The physician is the expert in the pathophysiology and the mechanism of what is occurring from

that disease process and the dispensary becomes part of that group as well as they have the

expertise in what products are available,” explained Tanksley.

Tanksley believes “it’s always good to research and to know what is available, whether it be

from a traditional or non-traditional standpoint. “We should not have a cookie-cutter approach to

medicine, and it is really important to know there are options available for pretty much every

condition that we treat.” Reflecting on the frustration and anguish parents have in selecting

cannabis as a remedy for their child, Tanksley says “I think part of that is because there isn’t a lot

of research in this space, especially when it comes to pediatrics. There’s very limited research

and a good amount of it is on animal studies, which doesn’t always translate over to human

studies.” Despite this, she has been impressed with some blockbuster research on cannabis and

children with autism, seizure disorders, and cognitive impairments.

“Having that research does set the platform or the baseline for you to open that discussion with

your physician,” she said. “I think it is also important to know this is what we do as physicians:

we are lifelong learners. Challenging your physician and having them to look for the research

and to look at that data is also what you should be doing,” Tanksley emphasized. Mainstream

medical organizations with which many doctors already have a relationship provide significant

cannabis-related resources. Tanksley uses resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics

for example.

Tanksley is the mother of a medical cannabis cardholder. Her daughter was 18 and obtained her

medical card when Tanksley discovered cannabis was one of many options that could be helpful

in her medical situation. She didn’t just inform her daughter’s doctor but informed and educated

her daughter about how cannabis could benefit her medical condition. Those who are 18 but

younger than 21 can obtain a medical card without parental approval. With the medical card,

they can go to a medical dispensary in Illinois and purchase cannabis products like adult-use

cannabis consumers 21 and older. For those younger than 18, the caregiver receives a card and

buys products at a dispensary for the child.

Being a consulting physician for youth is more than using formulas to adjust biochemicals to

people of a smaller size. “Children are unique; …They are not little adults. They have a lot of

development that is still occurring within them that we have to be mindful of,” Tanksley said.

Yet, Tanksley cautioned, cannabis should not be viewed as the single miracle cure. “I think with

all things, including cannabis medicine, it’s not always just about the product. There’s an entire

platform that goes along with that. It includes nutrition. It includes mindfulness. It includes

mind-body medicine and exercise, and all those kinds of things. For little ones, you have to see

what abilities they have and what resources you can put in place for them other than just

medication. I think definitely it is a comprehensive approach that you have to take.”

The doctor was asked for three simple things she recommends parents do in exploring cannabis

as an alternative. “(1) Do your research; (2) Know your state laws. For example, there is a law

here in Illinois. It’s called Ashley’s Law. It was put in place in 2018 and it allows for pediatric

patients who have a medicinal card to have their medications administered to them while they

are at school. (3) Know your dispensary and know their products.” Cannabis is like any other

herbal medicine and the potency of a strain can vary with how it is grown. “I think it is really

important to know about the certificates and the testing that is done on the products and the

quality controls.”

The three recommendations “are all based in just knowing and being as educated as possible

about what you are providing for your child,” she adds.

Dr. Audrey Tanksley can be found at Innovative Wellness at 1553 W. Fullerton on the north side

or Premier Urgent Care at 1301 E. 47 th St. on the south side.