MOM KEEPS SON ON MARIJUANA REGIMEN

Marijuana treatments prescribed for an 8-year-old boy with a mental
disorder will continue, his mother said after a judge dismissed a
petition that could have removed the child from her home.

"I can't believe it's finally over," the Rocklin woman declared after
a brief appearance before Judge Colleen Nichols in Placer Superior
Court Tuesday.

Although the court did not endorse her approach to therapy, it did
conclude there is no need for an order protecting the boy from
neglect or mistreatment, the woman said.

The only condition attached to the dismissal, she said, is her
agreement to seek treatment from a pediatrician at least every six
months.

Child Protective Services had stepped in last July once it learned of
the treatment, accusing her of being unfit and contributing to the
delinquency of a minor. The judge allowed her to continue the
treatments while the case was being decided.

Neither the county nor an attorney representing the mother would
comment on the proceedings because such matters are confidential
under state law.

To protect the identity of the boy, neither his name nor the name of
his mother are being published.

The woman said she has been using marijuana to treat her son's
afflictions since May, when, as a last resort, she turned away from
the more conventional drugs, "none of which ever worked."

Since shortly after the boy's birth, diagnoses offered by 16
different physicians suggest he has been suffering from attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic
stress disorder.

He demonstrated extreme changes in mood, energy and behavior, began
biting and hitting other children and was literally unmanageable, his
mother said.

"By the time he was 2, he'd been in and out of well over seven or
eight preschools," she said. "And by the time he was 4, he'd been
banned from all of Placer County's child-care system."

His brain disorder on three different occasions led to psychiatric
hospitalizations, she said.

Treatment with numerous conventional medications resulted in adverse
reactions that were "heart-wrenching," said the mother, who stumbled
upon the idea of marijuana therapy in a desperate Internet search.

Although federal law still considers marijuana to be an illegal
substance, Proposition 215, an initiative passed by California voters
in 1996, legalized, under state law, the medical use of marijuana
with a doctor's recommendation.

Initially, the mother prepared the boy's "medicine" in the form of
muffins, which she fed him regularly.

The results were immediate, she said.

Her son's behavior improved markedly. His mood swings leveled off. He
developed friendships with children in the neighborhood.

And this year he had his first ever birthday party.

From the time of her first court appearance in early July, the mother
has been maintaining her son's treatment with the approval of the
court, she said.

The boy doesn't know he's receiving marijuana, she said. To him, it's
just medicine.

It hasn't been a cure-all, the mother explained.

"He still has challenges. I expect him to have bad days. But he's
maintained more than he has on any other medication," she said.