10 Positive Pot Stories For A Planet Gone Mad

The post 10 Positive Pot Stories For A Planet Gone Mad appeared first on High Times.

As 2017 draws to a close, it seems this year has been marked by yet another week, yet another heartbreaking tragedy. Cars being driven into innocent bystanders. Mass shootings of church and concertgoers. Hurricanes that drown all hopes, and wildfires that burn them into a cinder. Many of these hardships are exacerbated by polarizing political divisions fueling increased anger, hatred, racism and violence. But amidst it all, there are stories of compassion and perseverance involving cannabis—whether it’s improving a sad situation, surviving a natural disaster or making the great aspects of life and this world even better. With that in mind, we bring you 10 positive pot stories that leave no doubt as to the greatness of ganja, beyond the sweet buzz and the piles of profits.

10. Reefer Refugees Into The U.S.

In this era of the Trump administration’s fear and rejection of refugees from particular places in the world, it seems fitting to start this list with a tribute to “refugees” of a different sort.

In the context of cannabis, it’s a reference to those brave families abroad who’ve abandoned everything they’ve ever known to move to the United States in order to access medicinal cannabis for their ailing children.

A feature piece in the Guardian cleverly referred to patients like Tristan Forde and his family as “expots”—as in “expatriates.” In this case, Tristan is a poor little boy who has been saved from the worst ravages of the rare but deadly form of epilepsy known as Dravet Syndrome—and the 20 seizures a day he would suffer—by the use of medicinal cannabis oil.

Forde and his mother left the charming southern Ireland town of Dunmanway for the heights of Aurora, Colorado, some 4,000 miles to the west. Tristan’s father has remained in Ireland to keep working, but the move and the separation has proved worth it all to see Tristan become “brighter,” as his mother phrased it.

In another instance, Javier Pena relocated his seven-year-old twin boys from Spain to Colorado Springs to legally take “Charlotte’s Web” CBD oil to combat his kids’ Batten disease, which also triggers nasty seizures. Colorado Springs nonprofit Realm of Caring provides support to such families from across the far reaches of the planet seeking a cure for their children. And they find it in the everyday miracle of medicinal marijuana.

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