As Deryn Blackwell was dying of cancer, his mother, Callie, sought out something, anything, that could relieve his pain. Finally, after three excruciating years of watching Deryn suffer, she found a potential aid: marijuana.

Now, three years after illicitly providing marijuana to Deryn–his doctor would not prescribe him the drug–Callie claims it saved his life. She reveals Deryn’s story in a new tell-all book set for release next month in Britain titled “The Boy in 7 Billion.”

While Deryn’s story is indeed inspiring, researchers caution that it cannot be taken as evidence that marijuana can treat cancer. Anecdotal tales like Deryn’s exist, but clinical trials have not found concrete evidence that marijuana is an effective cancer treatment. It is also unclear if the cannabis tincture Deryn consumed was the direct cause of his recovery.

“It could have been a number of things,” Emma Smith, a science information manager for Cancer Research UK, told Britain’s online newspaper The Independent. “Perhaps cannabis did help, perhaps it didn’t.”

“Because it’s just one person’s story, without a doctor analyzing all the clinical evidence and comparing him to somebody that didn’t get cannabis, we still don’t know for certain it was the cannabis that helped him.”

Deryn’s ordeal began in 2010 when, at ten-years-old, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Eighteen months later he was diagnosed with a second rare form of cancer.

In an excerpt from Blackwell’s book printed in the Daily Mail, Callie writes:

By 2013, after nearly four years of hospital treatment, it seemed that the only thing left for him were opiate drugs to ease the pain as he reached the end of his life. Like any mother would be, I was desperate to find something to alleviate his suffering.

Marijuana has been shown to alleviate some side effects of cancer, including nausea. But according to the American Cancer Society, studies on cannabinoids have not shown that “they help control or cure the disease.”

Medical marijuana is still illegal in the United Kingdom. The only licensed marijuana-based medicine available is Sativex, which is used to treat patients with multiple sclerosis.

After conducting extensive research on the benefits of marijuana, Callie asked Deryn’s doctor if Bedrocan, a cannabis-based painkiller, would be a better alternative than her son’s “mind-numbing morphine.” The doctor said that while it was an effective painkiller, it had not been tested on children and she couldn’t prescribe it to him.

That’s when Callie and her husband, Simon, decided to take matters into their own hands. Simon traveled to a nearby service station and purchased cannabis illegally from a dealer. Back home, Callie whipped up a tincture that would be compatible for a vaporizer pen, which Deryn would later use when the doctors weren’t around.

“We felt like naughty schoolkids who were having a sneaky cigarette around the back of the bike sheds,” Callie wrote.

Devyn, now 17, made a gradual recovery and is currently attending school and working as a part-time chef of vegan food.

Callie said she’ll probably “never be totally free” of the fear that his cancer will return, but she is confident her son can endure. “I am reminded of my miracle boy every time I look at Deryn and I know deep in my heart that whatever the future may throw at us, we can cope,” she wrote. “We always do.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on Monday released new guidelines for pediatricians to follow in light of recent marijuana legalization developments. Marijuana is legal, either medically or recreationally, in 28 states and D.C. Though overall marijuana use, even in states with the most lenient laws, has remained the same, decriminalization has “created an environment in which marijuana increasingly is seen as acceptable, safe, and therapeutic,” the report said.

This, the report added, can “affect use among adolescents by decreasing the perceived risk of harm or through the marketing of legal marijuana, despite restrictions that prohibit marketing and advertising to this age group.”

Co-written by Dr. Sheryl Ryan and Dr. Seth Ammerman, the report, “Counseling Parents and Teens about Marijuana Use in the Era of Legalization of Marijuana” will be published in the March edition of the Journal of Pediatrics. With an absence of solid scientific research into marijuana’s effects on brain development, Ryan said in a press release, pediatricians and parents must play a vital role in educating children to abstain from the drug.

“The adolescent brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex areas that control judgment and decision-making, is not fully developed until the early 20s, raising questions about how any substance use may affect the developing brain,” the report said. Ryan, in the press release, noted the negative effects marijuana might have on a developing brain: “short-term impairment of memory, attention, concentration and problem-solving skills, as well as motor control, coordination and reaction time.”

Marijuana, though illegal for anyone younger than 21, even in states that have legalized it for recreational use, is more accessible than ever before. Use among children ages 12 to 17 has remained steady since 2002. But there has also been an uptick in calls and visits to poison centers over the past few years, mostly involving children (babies as well) who have accidentally consumed a piece of candy or baked good infused with marijuana.

The stigma surrounding the drug is also dissipating, which is alarming to health professionals who are not entirely certain about its health effects, especially on developing brains. In addition, the concentration of THC–the active chemical in marijuana–in a plant has increased. In the 1980s, marijuana had a THC concentration of about four percent; in 2012, that rose to 12 percent.

The report included “talking points for parents and teens,” such as: regular marijuana use among teens can lead to depression; use by minors is illegal, and can lead to prosecution and a criminal record; secondhand marijuana smoke is toxic. The report suggests parents not use marijuana in front of their children, keep marijuana-infused edibles stowed away, and to “not share your own histories of drug use with your children.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A report released last week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine detailed nearly 100 conclusions on marijuana’s health effects and the consumption of cannabis-derived substances. The conclusions were based on abstracts from 100,000 previous studies. The report’s conclusions touched on marijuana’s effects on a number of illnesses and maladies, from cancer to mental health to therapeutic efforts like pain relief. The report also called on the federal government to remove cannabis from its list of Schedule I drugs, which, it said, stifles deeper research into the substance.

“We conducted an in-depth and broad review of the most recent research to establish firmly what the science says and to highlight areas that still need further examination,” said Marie McCormick, chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. “As laws and policies continue to change, research must also.” 

The report’s findings were classified by the strength of the evidence found, ranging from conclusive to insufficient. Among the report’s conclusive findings was that smoking marijuana can help alleviate pain, but can also lead to an increased risk of “motor vehicle crashes.” There is also substantial evidence, according to the report, that marijuana use leads to a higher risk of schizophrenia, particularly among frequent users.

Unlike tobacco, the report concluded that there is scant evidence that smoking marijuana leads to an increased cancer risk. It also did not find conclusive evidence to support the argument that marijuana is a gateway drug to more dangerous and deadly substances. “However, the committee found moderate evidence to suggest that there is a link between cannabis use and the development of substance dependence and/or a substance abuse disorder for substances including alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs,” the report found.

In addition to its empirical findings, the report’s authors called on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reclassify marijuana. Last summer, the DEA affirmed its classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug in a letter from its chief to a trio of governors who petitioned for the drug to be reclassified. “[Marijuana] does not have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision, and it has a high potential for abuse,” DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg wrote.

But the report last week from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a nonprofit group that includes 300 Nobel laureates, found that there are “several challenges and barriers in conducting [marijuana] research.” The authors added: “For instance, specific regulatory barriers, including the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, impede the advancement of research.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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