Alan Pesch had mixed emotions last night about the Louisiana House of Representative’s vote on Senate Bill 271, which was scheduled for today, and planned to spend the evening emailing lawmakers who oppose the bill, urging them to reconsider.
The bill, authored by Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, expands the list of medical conditions that can be treated by medical marijuana and allows licensed physicians to recommend the use of medical marijuana as a therapeutic treatment for debilitating medical conditions such as epilepsy, Crohn’s disease, muscular dystrophy and AIDS.
Pesch’s 12-year-old son John suffers from Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. He strongly supports the bill, but is unsure about the likelihood of its passage due to opposition by some lawmakers and other groups, as well as what he says is misinformation about the nature of the treatment and the bill.
“It’s medical cannabis oil,” says Pesch, adding the marijuana plant would be converted to a medicinal oil for treatment and not smoked. THC, the compound that causes psychotropic effects, would be extracted to the lowest level so patients like his son do not experience the high the comes with smoking marijuana, he says.
Pesch views the treatment as a means to improve his son’s quality of life. He says that since John was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease five years ago, he suffers from joint pains, nausea and stunted growth. He’s missed school due to the condition, the father adds. The medications his son’s currently prescribed, which includes a shot Pesch says burns his son when injected, are expensive and do nothing to improve the quality of his life.
The bill faces somewhat of an hillup battle. Groups such as the Louisiana Psychiatric Medical Association and Louisiana District Attorney’s Association have come out in opposition of it. Some claim it ignores safe medical standards, science and opens the door to legalization of recreational use.
Pesch says that’s not true.
“We wouldn’t give our child something that’s going to get him stoned,” he says.
The full House will convene at 2 p.m. today. If the House approves the bill, which narrowly passed the Senate, it will next go to Gov. John Bel Edwards for a signature.
If the bill doesn’t pass, Pesch doesn’t see any alternative but to move his family to Colorado, where John can get access to the medical marijuana.
“We don’t want to do that,” he says.
—Alexandria Burris
