Local family credited with rallying support for bill
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The first step in the battle of legalizing cannabadiol oil (CBD oil) in Wisconsin – and helping seizure patients like Lydia Schaeffer – passed with flying colors Tuesday, but a tougher battle is ahead.
The Wisconsin State Assembly, by voice vote, passed Bill 726.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Sally Schaeffer, who along with other parents of seizure patients has been fighting a public battle to legalize CBD oil as a treatment option.
The oil – which has a very low THC content and will not provide the “high” of marijuana – has proven effective in treating seizure patients where it is manufactured in Colorado.
However, Schaeffer and her husband, Tom, would have to give up a family business and relocate two other children to move there, and she has been fighting hard to get the item before the state Legislature.
“This is amazing. All the work from all these parents across the state of Wisconsin is finally coming to fruition,” Sally Schaeffer said. “I think this is a major step in the right direction.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has helped move the process forward over the last month, and was pleased with how things went on Tuesday.
“You know what? What a great victory for a family that has been dealt a tough hand,” “I think the whole point of what we wanted to focus on today was letting families make the choice of what was best for her daughter.”
Vos was pleased with the bipartisan vote. While no official tally was kept, there was “overwhelming support,” Vos said.
“I think that’s a testament to Sally and other parents,” he said.
However, the next hurdle could be more significant. With just a week and a half left until the end of the legislative session, the State Senate will have to move quickly to get the bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor.
One of the major opponents to the bill is State Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, whose committee could get the bill.
“The struggle will be with her committee, if it even gets a hearing,” Schaeffer said. “She’s not very receptive to it at this point.”
Schaeffer finds it puzzling that Vukmir has taken such a stance given how she has touted herself as a previous pediatric nurse.
“My hope is, with the overwhelming response from the Assembly, it will open her heart and mind to consider hearing this in her committee,” Schaeffer said. “If anybody heard all of the testimony … you can see how it moved the (Assembly).”
Vos said he hoped the momentum would carry over and the State Senate would take up the bill.
“We work together,” Vos said. “My hope is that when you have parents working so hard to get a bill passed, you sure hope they would get a fair shake to make their case in the Senate, too.”
Schaeffer said it was heartwarming to have the full support from Vos.
“It was amazing,” Schaeffer said.
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I keep seeing this and cannot believe this family thinks it is acceptable to push a drug to market without long term studies or FDA approval. The oil still contains THC even if less, the family does not know it will work, but keep claiming it “is the cure to pediatric seizures”. There is ONE family that claims it works, ONE doctor who is pushing it, and she is potentially selling false hope to desperate families. What happens if it doesn’t work or help? What happens if it makes someone’s seizures worse – there are plenty of epileptics that claim it does? What happens if god forbid it kills her daughter? What happens if it kills or worsens one of the kids she is pushing their families to support this? Will she be held responsible then? Does she have a medical, drug, or science background? The approval of new drugs should be left to the FDA not the public. What happens when some crack job doctor claims cocaine helps seizures? Guess they’ll be trying to push that through also.
If this drug would cause major side effects cause there wasn’t any tests on it hp will they sue? Peol just wan tto do something, by pass all rules and regs than not take responsibility for the damges.
You need to do your research – this is not ONE doctor or ONE family as you claim. As parents of epileptic children, we have already used FDA approved drugs for years. They have failed our children in many ways, including being ineffective at stopping seizures AND having severe side effects that are debilitating to the lives of our children. None of the parents of epileptic children would be short sighted enough to think CBD is a cure for all, but we all deserve the opportunity to try another treatment option that is NATURAL and shows great potential for alleviating the hell that our children live day to day. If it was your child, wouldn’t you fight with everything you have to give them another option? We don’t need a medical background, we LIVE it day in and day out with every breath our children take. Epilepsy could kill our children (look up SUDEP). By the way, did you know that Cocaine is a schedule C-II drug that CAN be prescribed by a doctor? We don’t have time to wait for the FDA approval (3-10 years). Do your research.
How ignorant of a comment. The drugs that are currently available are far more damaging to a child, who already has little to no “normal” standards by which she lives her life. Why after she takes her anti-seizure medication is she given oxygen so that same medicine does not kill her? The current drugs are dangerous. How many people do you know, Karin, that have overdosed and died from CBD oil? This bill isn’t about supporting abunch of hippies, it’s about helping sick children. Not only is the child a prisoner to seizures from her condition, but her family is also. God bless her family for making a decision that could save her life.
If you were truly a pioneer of knowledge on this subject, you’d have further information than “one doctor” and “one family” who are pushing this. This isn’t a microcosm of an issue and far more states realize this than just Colorado.
Your real battle with this drug is not CBD oil, it’s prohibition. Prohibition is the reason for your ill founded reasoning above. Do you remember what happened during the prohibition of alcohol? Prohibition doesn’t work. If you left the government to make all of your decisions on their own time, you would never progress. What do you attribute to the governments classification of marijuana and all the states who use it for stating it has medicinal value? Is there a disconnect here, Karin?
We had that situation in 19th century before FDA and modern medicine investigating drugs and millions dies from taking un- researched products, patent medicines, weird healing deals. Read history. Abandoning proper scientific processes and have the govt. legislatures okay drugs helter skelter would be disastrous for the population. who is going to take responsibility for drugs gone bad that kill people?? Who would you sue?
In the 60’s a group of nutcase American party people were making al the same arguments for Laetrile, an apricot pit drug that di nothing and killed people. Read about Steve McQueen’s death?
In the 60/70’s we had a drug over in Europe used for sleeping but if taken by pregnant woman during 3-4 months, thalidomide, cause birth defects. We start just okaying drugs with out proper research we will have all kinds of thalidomides on market.
I greatly sympathize with people with kids problems, I worked with them for years and respect their difficulties in finding drugs that work. All drugs have downsides and many do not work on everyone. It is not a set answer as al people are different even though we all have the same insides.
Let’s look at the big picture here folks. Even if the government and the FDA do approve a new drug, it still is up to the individuals to whom it is prescribed to make sure they understand the drug, it’s intended effects, as well as the possible side effects. No one is forcing you to take it; why do you get to decide for someone else. If you take a drug without doing your research on it and understanding all the ramifications, shame on you; there is no one to blame but yourself, not the government, FDA, lobbyists, or doctors, just yourself. If a parent makes a choice in the best interests of their child, they take on the responsibility of that choice. If it is a wrong choice there is no legal punishment that could ever be as harsh as that the parent would impose on him or herself. Listen to the TV commercials for drugs like Viagra, Cialis, Accutane. None of the ailments that these drugs help will kill you, but the side effects of the drugs could leave permanent damage or lead to death; yet they have been approved with no where near the public outcry as CBD oil. Isn’t it time for us to stop letting the government make decisions for us so we have someone to blame?Isn’t it time for us to take charge of our own lives and own up to our wrong choices?
Legalize it