It’s been four years since legislation was finalized that would allow Louisiana patients who suffer from certain diseases accesses to medical marijuana, but you still can’t get it. Some families are frustrated that the process has been delayed once again, this time with a treatment availability estimated at early summer. Katie Corkern is a mother of a child who suffers from epilepsy.
“It is worrisome, and it causes severe concern for our elected officials, and the stakeholders in this group. I just… I question their intentions.”
Since then the legislature has passed several bills expanding the number of diseases that could be treated with medical cannabis.
The grower, GB Sciences, says the testing process has been slow going, and last year the Department of Agriculture laid out an extensive process that would need to be followed in order for the plant to be approved. Corkern says the bureaucratic delays are suspicious.
“I worry that some of the governing authorities over this just don’t feel this way. I know many of them were opposing the legislation when it passed, so that just gives me more concern.”
Corkern believes medical marijuana could be used to replace some of her child’s current medications, medications that have severe side effects. She says every month the state delays is another month her child has to suffer.
“Conner has seizes every single day, sometimes hundreds, and this medication that we are waiting on could cause them to stop completely, or cut them to half.”
Medical marijuana is being grown at Southern University and the LSU AgCenter, who is partnered with GB Sciences.
