Georgia Family’s Son Taken Away Because Parents Used Marijuana To Treat His Seizures

A Georgia family’s son was taken into state custody after authorities learned they gave the boy marijuana to treat his seizures, WFAA-TV (Dallas) is reporting. The incident happened on April 20 but Suzeanna and Matthew Brill have since been sharing their story with the media in order to draw attention to their plight.

Although the boy’s name is not being revealed in the media, according to a crowdfunding campaign set up by Suzeanna on GoFundMe, his name is David.

Mr. and Mrs. Brill say that David suffered seizures “seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” So bad were his seizures, says Suzeanna, that David couldn’t go to school, have friends, or enjoy life as a kid. In her GoFundMe post, she describes his life as “isolated.”

Doctors tried everything, she says, giving him a host of medications – sometimes all at once – and perhaps, as she claims, risking his life in the process. They got nowhere.

Finally, beginning in February of this year, she writes she started looking into medical cannabis.

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At first, she tried CBD oil – an oil derived from the cannabis plant that provides some of the benefits but doesn’t cause the user to get high. CBD oil is legal in Georgia, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

However, not finding relief from CBD oil, the family went for a more direct route: They started giving David marijuana in leaf form – that is, smoking it and, in the process, injecting both CBD and THC (THC is the ingredient in marijuana that causes a high).

Dad Matthew says that he never forced his son to smoke pot. Rather, he says, Matthew first smoked the pot himself, in order to make sure it was OK. Then he packed the pot into a pipe and let David decide whether or not to smoke it.

“I know where it comes from, I know my people. Made sure the bag was good, packed the bowl in my bowl, which I know ain’t been anywhere else, and I set it on the table and told him that it was his decision. I did not tell him he had to or not.”

David did smoke the pot, and within minutes, his parents say, the results were nothing short of miraculous. In fact, says the family, David went 71 days without seizures while smoking marijuana.

However, Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services wasn’t on board with the family’s way of treating David’s seizures. After one of his therapists reported the family to authorities, he was taken into state custody, and his service dog was taken to the pound. What’s more, the parents were both charged with reckless conduct.

For now, the parents are out of jail and are working to get him back. Through their GoFundMe page, the family hopes to raise enough money to hire an attorney to help them in the process.