12-Year-Old Colorado Girl Sues Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Wants Medical Marijuana Legal Nationwide
A 12-year-old Colorado girl has sued U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the country’s federal marijuana policy in an effort to get cannabis legal across the United States, KDVR (Denver) is reporting.
Colorado has seen something of an immigration wave of late, with new residents coming far and wide to take advantage of The Centennial State’s wide-open marijuana laws. And while some have undoubtedly come for the recreational pot, others have come so they can use pot medically. That includes parents of young children who have found that the only way to treat their kids’ medical conditions is through cannabis.
Alexis Bortelli is one such kid. The 12-year-old has suffered seizures her entire life, and nothing seemed to help her. Doctors in her native Texas even suggested invasive brain surgery. However, when one doctor mentioned offhand that some kid patients have found relief from their seizures through pot, her parents decided to head to Colorado to give it a try.
The results were obvious and immediate: with one drop of liquid THC (the psychoactive component in marijuana) in the morning and one in the evening, Alexis hasn’t had a seizure in two and a half years.
Unfortunately, America’s strict federal pot laws mean that Alexis basically can’t leave Colorado. As soon as her family crosses state lines, if they’re bringing Alexis’ medicine with them, they’re committing a felony. If they don’t bring her medicine, she’ll start suffering seizures again.
“I would like to be able to visit my grandparents without risking being taken to a foster home.”
The federal government, meanwhile, continues to treat marijuana as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. That means that, as far as the feds are concerned, marijuana has “no medicinal value,” and is treated the same as drugs such as crack or heroin.
Officially, federal law is supreme over state law. Unofficially, the federal government has usually looked the other way at states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Trump appointee, has made it clear that he’s not at all happy about this arrangement.
Alexis has hired an attorney and has sued Sessions in order to get medical marijuana legal on a national level. Denver attorney Adam Foster supports her cause but isn’t hopeful for success.
“Whenever you sue the government, the deck is really stacked against you.”
For Alexis, she just wants to be able to visit her grandparents in Texas, the same way other kids can visit their grandparents.
“We’ll be able to be treated like what you call ‘normal’ families.”
[Featured Image by CAPJAH/Shutterstock]
