To treat Jayden’s epilepsy, Jason David turned to medical marijuana and… saved his life.
Jayden was born on August 17th, 2006. Before he turned 5, he was administered a dozen powerful medications to tame Dravet Syndrome — a rare form of epilepsy which leads to severe seizures. Jayden was taking 22 anti-seizure pills a day, but the results were devastating. The prescription medicines left him immobilized due to the side effects. Jayden couldn’t walk, eat solid food or take a bath and he was still experiencing grand mal seizures, some that lasted more than an hour.
“Jayden was having seizures from when he woke up to when he went to sleep, screaming and crying in pain. I was at the end [of my rope]. I lost everything, my house, my car, my business, my wife,” he says, but he was determined to not lose his son.
On June 4th, 2011, David gave his son marijuana oil, and for the first time since Jayden was 4-months-old, the boy went four days without a single seizure. Jayden now eats solid food, plays in the park, and swims in the pool.
David created ‘Jayden Juice,’ a combination of THC and CBD, the ingredients found in marijuana, and gave that to his son. “It has 28 mg of CBD, to 1 mg of THC, and what it does is it helps the CB1 receptor. We wish we had known this as a first option, not a last option. He’s not 100 percent seizure free, but it’s down 90 percent, and I’ll take that. I’m getting my son back,” David says.
Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana clinic in Oakland, California, helped create the original tincture Jayden took. The center still analyzes and tests the marijuana before David administers it to his son. Harborside says it helps a number of child patients, including Jayden, whose parents legally obtain the marijuana. Jayden Juice is currently only available in California, but David receives thousands of requests every week from families around the world.
This video is from a new documentary, ‘The Culture High,’ which looks at both sides of the marijuana prohibition argument. The results may surprise you…
