ORDEAL OF BOY'S VIOLENT BEHAVIOR FINALLY ENDS

In July 2001, Debbie Jeffries of Rocklin faced that nightmare of
every parent raising a child with severe behavioral problems: Child
Protective Services wanted to place her son in an institution.

The reason: Her 7-year-old son, Jeffrey, had attention deficit
disorder and an array of related maladies that she was treating with marijuana.

The marijuana was the first thing that had aided Jeffrey's condition.
She had tried all manner of therapy and 19 powerful drugs prescribed
by a parade of doctors to alleviate his agony.

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
oppositional defiant disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar
disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Eventually, the judge ruled in Jeffries' favor, and today, Jeffrey
has just finished sixth grade on the honor roll at his public school
in Rocklin. He no longer uses marijuana, but the intervening years
have been anything but smooth for the family.

Jeffries and her mother, La Rayne Jeffries, have written a book,
"Jeffrey's Journey," about the ordeal.

Jeffries said Monday's ruling on medical marjiuana by the U.S.
Supreme Court is a terrible mistake in light of the experience she
and her mother have had with Jeffrey.

"In Jeffrey's case, I think he'd be dead by now if we hadn't used the
marijuana treatment," she said.

Marijuana came into the picture only when Jeffries was at the end of
her rope, under an order either to find an effective medicine for her
son or see him locked away in a residential treatment program,
probably out of state.

His behavior was so bad he had been banned at age 4 from all day care
facilities in Placer County, and he soon was rejected from any school
or program he tried.

"I didn't know anything about marijuana, but I was desperate," said
Jeffries, who had moved in with her parents at that time. (Jeffrey's
father is dead.)

She and her parents all had voted against Proposition 215, the 1996
ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana. But a mention on the
Internet of marijuana therapy for behavioral problems caught her
interest. She eventually connected with a Santa Cruz collective that
grew medical marijuana.

Grandmother La Rayne Jeffries is an inventive cook who devised a way
to bake marijuana-laced muffins and later a way to bake the marijuana
with butter to make a powder that could be put into capsules.

The results were dramatic.

"The first time, I gave him a quarter of a muffin. When I was driving
with Jeffrey I had to hold his hand to keep him from hitting me or
doing something dangerous, but that first morning, I suddenly felt
his hand relax. For the first time ever, he said 'Mommy, I love you.' "

Things improved markedly over the ensuing months, even through her
ordeal with Child Protective Services. Then, federal drug agents
raided the farm that supplied Jeffrey's marijuana.

Jeffrey's violent behavior returned. Mental health professionals were
at a loss. Some predicted that he was destined in the next few years
for run-ins with the law and, eventually, prison.

Desperate, Jeffries arranged for Jeffrey to be placed with a Utah
family that operates a remote ranch, where he spent two years without
medication of any kind.

"It was a different kind of program. It's a working ranch with a lot
of work to do. Instead of sending Jeffrey to a quiet room when he
misbehaved, they'd have him shovel horse manure," she said.

"Whatever they did, it worked. He's still not using any medication."

But firm as Jeffries is in her conviction that marijuana was the key
to Jeffrey's turnaround, such an idea is counter to usual practice in
dealing with the disorders with which he has been diagnosed, said Dr.
Robert Hendren, a specialist in serious emotional disorders and
executive director of the MIND Institute at the UC Davis Medical Center.

He said marijuana would not be a likely drug to use for attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"Perhaps it relieved his anxiety, but it would not be expected to
help with his inattention - just the opposite," he said. "But it's
hard to draw conclusions."

The combination of disorders described for Jeffrey would make him a
rare patient indeed, less than one in a population of 100,000,
Hendren said, whereas ADHD by itself is found in six of every hundred
girls and nine of every hundred boys.

"You can tell this is a most difficult case," he said. "Difficult for
him. Difficult for the mom. Difficult for the treating physicians."