This week, a heavily pregnant mother was taken into police custody and questioned.
Why? Because the Melbourne woman had admitted to using cannabis oil to treat her three-year-old son’s epilepsy, The Age reports.
Cassie Batten, who is eight months pregnant, explained on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night that her son Cooper had been suffering seizures almost every minute — but that his condition had improved markedly since using the oil.
While it is understood Ms Batten and her partner Mr Wallace were not charged after the police questioning on Thursday, the incident again raised the controversial question of whether cannabis products should be legalised for medical use.
Tamworth mother Lucy Haslam, who told Fairfax Media the treatment of Ms Batten was “sickening”, has previously written on Mamamia about this issue…
I’m watching my brave 24-year-old son Dan die from terminal cancer that’s putting him and his young wife through hell. All I want to do is stop the pain he’s feeling – what any parent would fight to do. And I’ve found a way to do it.
But despite support from doctors, scientists, the cancer council, and every political party, my government is still treating me as a criminal – and the consequences for trying to care for my son are terrifying.
You see, we manage my son’s health with medicinal cannabis, and I’m terrified I’m going to end up in prison.
Like many others with terminal illness, the drug is helping manage my son’s nausea, his vomiting, and the cruel tricks that cancer plays on his appetite. It’s vastly different to recreational drug use, Dan doesn’t want to do it, he has to; it’s giving him an ability maintain quality of life with the time that he has left.