Sharon McEvoy - how CBD oil transformed my autistic son's life

04/15/20 • 49 min

This interview with Sharon McEvoy for my upcoming book 'The CBD Book: The Essential Guide to CBD Oil' is one of the reasons I started Cannabis Voices.
It wasn't until I spoke to Sharon about her son Niall and heard how he went from extreme anxiety and self-injurious behaviour to the healthy, cheeky, chatty little boy he is today after taking CBD oil, that I really felt the book come alive.
But merely including Niall's story in the book still didn't seem enough. I felt somehow that Sharon needed a platform for her story to be heard in her own words.
And boy, does she have a story to tell.
"“We started giving Niall CBD oil in July 2016’” says Sharon, ”and by August, we had a different child in front of us. "First of all, the self injurious behaviour and headbanging stopped. Then the hyperactivity stopped and the child could sit for five minutes. You could see his system calming down. We saw all of these senses that were in total overload come down to a normal rate.”

Like many parents in similar situations, Sharon has had to become an expert in how to manage Niall's autism - and has dedicated many hours educating parents about CBD oil through the Facebook Community 'CBDs of Autism' which has thousands of members worldwide.
This podcast is a must for parents who are considering giving CBD oil to their child with autism as Sharon gives some great, practical advice on how to make those first often scary steps.
“I’ve been very wary of putting Niall out there as this posterboy for CBD and autism because it doesn’t work for everyone," says Sharon. "It’s been a very long journey to get where we are and we’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. You’re not going to cure their autism. But what you’re looking at is to stop ‘existing’ within the four walls of your home and start living a life.”

Resources:
CBD's of Autism (private Group)
Cannabidiol Based Medical Cannabis in Children with Autism- a Retrospective Feasibility Study (Adi Aran)
Lower circulating endocannabinoid levels in children with autism spectrum disorder (Adi Aran)

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Previous Episode

Professor Manuel Guzmán - future directions of cannabis as an anticancer treatment

Professor Manuel Guzman is Professor of Molecular Biology at the Complutense University in Madrid where he has been a leading light in discovering the anticancer properties of cannabinoids such as THC and CBD. He led the team behind the first ever clinical trial for THC as an antitumoral agent in the rare type of brain cancer, glioblastoma.
I recorded this interview for an article for Project CBD examining just how close we are to the approval of a cannabis-based anticancer drug, but managed to draw Manuel into a whole host of fascinating topics, on which he talked openly and frankly.
Highlights include:
A summary of how near or far we are away from a cannabis-based cancer drug.
How the bar is set higher for cannabinoids compared to other areas of research.
What other types of cancer are likely to move onto the clinical studies stage in cannabinoid research.
Manuel's view on GW Pharma's 'mining' of the cannabis field with patents for different types of cannabinoid combinations and diseases.
Why a cannabis-based cancer drug will always be trialled alongside standard treatments such as chemo or radiotherapy.
Practical advice from Manuel for patients with cancer about how to safely use cannabis oil.
The biphasic effect of THC and how this may influence its antitumoral activity.
An explanation of the difference between tolerability and tolerance.
A call to action to patients to play their part in the normalisation of cannabis by telling their doctors about their cannabis use.
Transcript:
For space reasons, I cannot include the full transcript here, but feel free to contact me via my website marybiles.com and I will happily send it.

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Next Episode

Carola Pérez - fighting to legalise medical cannabis in Spain

The life of Carola Pérez changed forever when at the age of 11 she broke her coccyx while skating. Her coccyx was eventually removed and her life since then has been a series of surgeries and procedures, none of which have successfully lessened the intense pain she experiences on a daily basis.
Carola struggles to remember a large portion of her life in her twenties, due to the heavy opioids, antidepressants and even lithium she was prescribed and openly describes herself as being an addict during this time.
At her lowest ebb, Carola pleaded with her parents to end her suffering. Thankfully, a friend introduced her to cannabis.
"That was when was when cannabis came into my life and it was relief. It if we took one more year. I don't think I would be here. It just came in the perfect moment by the perfect person who prepared me a milk infusion. And suddenly I feel this calm and my pain was not so high. The volcano was like quiet. I could sleep, I could eat."

Not satisfied with the situation experienced by Spanish patients who are forced to turn to the black market in order to access cannabis as medicine, she started the patient support organisation, Dos Emociones (Two Emotions). She also founded the Spanish Observatory for Medical Cannabis alongside leading cannabinoid researchers, Cristina Sanchez and Manuel Guzmán, which as well as organising symposiums and educational events, also lobbies political parties to back the regulation of medical cannabis in Spain.
Carola is extremely forthright about the tendency within the cannabis industry to forget the plight of patients, using their suffering to sell their products.
"I'm a bit tired of the speech by the industry that we do everything for patients. If you do everything for patients, try to help the patients who are pushing hard to get cannabis regulated in their countries."
Useful links:
Dos Emociones
Spanish Medical Cannabis Observatory
International Association for Cannabis Medicine

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