A Texas father nearly had his daughter taken away from him for treating her autism with medical marijuana. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio and Peter Mougey discuss this issue.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: This story to me is incredible. I think it’s an important story for a lot of reasons, but here you had a parent that had an autistic child. The autism was so bad that what would end up happening was the child would break their own arm, break their own leg, cause brain-
Peter Mougey: Self-mutilation, right.
Mike Papantonio: Self-mutilation, and so the father said, “Look, we gave the child medical … gave them marijuana, and that calmed the child down.” Now, you pick up from there. What happened?
Peter Mougey: There’s a charge filed with Child Protective Services for child abuse.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Peter Mougey: When I read the story, I’m thinking, “I’ve got kids. You’d do anything as a parent to protect your kid.” The kid’s beating themselves, breaking their bones. They were giving the child an antipsychotic. That just turned the kid into a zombie, and that scared the parents. One of the neighbors recommends, “Hey, you know what? Try this pot brownie,” and it worked.
They videoed the results, and the miraculous results, videoed it, and were championing medicinal use of marijuana in Texas. The Child Welfare Services picks up the story, and ends up charging them with child abuse because they’re advocating, “Look at this wonderful result it’s had on my kid.”
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Judge looks at it and says that’s outrageous.
Peter Mougey: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: That’s a recap. Let me pick up there, okay? Florida, for example. Charlotte’s Web, we are involved. Full disclosure, our law firm’s involved with the Charlotte’s Web issue. That is, there is a low-THC marijuana that treats epilepsy. You would have children who are having 50 seizures a day. All of a sudden, they’re taking Charlotte’s Web, and they have zero seizures.
Well, even the conservative, I mean ultra-conservative legislature here in Florida says, “Yeah, this is a good idea, and we’re going to allow Charlotte’s Web to be sold.” The next thing that happens is medical marijuana in the state of Florida passes. Well, what has actually happened here is you’ve had a huge pushback from the pharmaceutical industry.
Peter Mougey: Of course.
Mike Papantonio: You have the pill, the drug companies saying, “We don’t want people using marijuana because it’s going to cause some awful, horrendous results.” Well, awful, horrendous results we have seen at this law firm for 35 years where you have products that are killing people, brain damage, products that are killing people from kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure, DVTs. Name it, we’ve seen the full expanse of it. Compare that to medical marijuana that has been used all over the country, and people are getting great results from this. Charlotte’s Web probably is going to save the lives of thousands of kids, people all over this country.
Peter Mougey: Improve quality of life, and all it’s doing is cutting into the bottom line of big pharma and getting pushback. The stigma of marijuana, although it’s got great results, especially the strains like Charlotte’s Web. What in the world could be wrong with helping out these folks other than cutting into bottom lines of big pharma that you’re getting this pushback?
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Okay, so big pharma is pissed. Big pharma is trying to use the prosecution card. They’re scaring the heck out of the banking industry. These people are selling medical marijuana. They’re having to do everything in cash. Sometimes you’ll see them able to use a very special credit card, but if you’ve got a distributor of medical marijuana, the feds make it so difficult for that person to do banking business. The banks, of course, they’re caving on any kind of threat at all. They’re saying, “I’m sorry, we can’t be involved because we’re a continuation of the conspiracy,” but that’s actually happening here, isn’t it?
Peter Mougey: Absolutely, it is. That’s what’s happening all over the country. We’ve got a good alternative to big pharma. It’s working. People are using it. The ramifications aren’t horrific. It’s working great. Why not use it?
Mike Papantonio: Well, why not use it? Because the pharmaceutical industry is pushing back. You know what they’re doing? They’re creating front groups. They’re fraudulent.
Peter Mougey: That’s their MO.
Mike Papantonio: They’re just making up front groups.
Peter Mougey: It’s making up science and putting…
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, like Mothers Against Medical Marijuana. Well, no, it’s Pfizer, and Merck, and Lilly against marijuana, because it’s cutting into their business. This story is going to continue getting more interesting. We’re following it because we’re involved in the Charlotte’s Web business, and we’ve been watching it from day one. The feds really had better pay attention to what they’re doing here.
