Mothers seek permission to grow cannabis to help their sick children

Seven Mexican mothers want to obtain permission to grow marijuana and produce the cannabidiol required for the medical treatment of their children, who suffer multiple seizures and spasms.

The mothers created an NGO with the legal advice of Aguinaco Abogados and Daya Foundation of Chile to ask Mexico's federal government for permission to grow marijuana and produce the medicine that their children require. Due to reglatory and economic reasons, they have been unable to import Charlotte's Web, the cannabis extract that their children require, from the United States.

Damara Betzahí Pérez Castro, one of the seven women, said they have the support of Chilean mothers who grow marijuana to produce the oil required by their children. The other mothers are Lucely from Veracruz, Cecilia Alvardo from Coahuila, Cunthia Montelongo from Aguascalientes, Eaglem Arli, from Mexico City, Kenya Alvarado from Querétaro and María de los Ángeles from Guadalajara. Six of their children have Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and one of them refractory epilepsy.