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Meet Mykayla Comstock, the 7-year-old using marijuana to treat leukemia

Laura Byrne Contributor
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Mykayla Comstock is a 7-year-old who uses marijuana everyday to help her fight leukemia and is just one of the 2,201 cancer patients in Oregon approved to use medical marijuana.

According to Comstock’s family, marijuana not only alleviates her pain but also boosts her morale.

She takes a pill form of the drug twice a day, and on bad days when she struggles to eat or sleep, she eats marijuana-laced baked goods. Sometimes its a gingersnap. Other times, it’s a baked brownie with marijuana-laced butter. Yes, the 7-year-old eats pot brownies.

Comstock said the drug “makes me feel funny, happy,” according to The Oregonian. She is one of the 52 children treated by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. The patients must have a qualifying medical condition, parental consent and a doctor’s approval.

Medical marijuana is usually diagnosed to treat pain, although many children in the program also use it to treat seizures, nausea and cancer.

Although adults using medical marijuana is becoming more readily accepted, situations like Comstock’s have produced a new set of concerns.

In Oregon, the parents decide the dosage for their child’s cannabis. Oregon’s law does not require a pediatrician to supervise the child’s marijuana consumption and does not specify any guidelines on the marijuana’s quality. For instance, Brandon Krenzler, Comstock’s mother’s boyfriend, is the registered grower for Mykayla’s medical marijuana.

Mykayla’s parents are divorced, and her father, Jesse Comstock, voiced his concerns about the drug usage after visiting his daughter in August.

“She was stoned out of her mind,” Comstock told The Oregonian. Comstack even contacted child welfare officials, the police and Mykayla’s oncologist.

Mykayla’s mother, Erin Purchase, does not see it that way. She and her boyfriend, Krenzler, are also regular pot smokers. Purchase started using medical marijuana in 2010 to treat vomiting caused by a metabolic problem.

After Mykayla was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia last spring, Purchase sought out a marijuana prescription for her daughter to treat pain, nausea, vomiting, depression, and sleep problems, all side effects from the chemotherapy.

“It helps me eat and sleep,” Mykayla told The Oregonian,”The chemotherapy makes you feel like you want to stay up all night long.”

Of the 18 states and one district, Washington, D.C., that have legalized medical marijuana, almost all also allow children to use medical marijuana.

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Tags : marijuana
Laura Byrne