It’s hard to open the news and browse the internet without reading about something regarding the legalization of marijuana. Several states, including Colorado, have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana or have made recreational marijuana legal to all consumers though marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 narcotic and is federally illegal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made it clear that he doesn’t agree with the legalization of the drug but now Sessions will have to fight someone new on legal pot – a twelve-year-old girl.
There are countless amounts of legislation regarding legal weed in the federal and state court systems already but Alexis Bortell is the first Colorado minor to sue Sessions and the Attorney General’s office over its federal marijuana policy.
Bortell and her family recently moved to Colorado for easier access to legal marijuana and its medicinal benefits. Bortell suffers from a seizure disorder and after the family had tried several different treatments they found that Haleigh’s Hope, a strain of cannabis oil, was most effective at calming the seizures. “As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it’s illegal in Texas,” Bortell, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a young child, told Denver-based KDVR. The move to Colorado was recommended by Bortell’s doctors and she hasn’t had an episode in two and half years since she began taking one drop of the cannabis oil daily.
Now Bortell wants patients like herself to have easy access to what she and her family see as a life-altering treatment. Bortell also worries she and her family could get in trouble when using the treatment in states where marijuana is still illegal like their home state of Texas.
Bortell’s attorneys believe while that any case suing the deferral government is a long shot but the recent influx of medicinal marijuana research could help their case. “Whenever you sue the government, the deck is really stacked against you,” Denver marijuana-attorney Adam Foster said.
Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana and now 29 other states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized or legalized the drug in some way. Do you think that marijuana should be legal nationwide? Do you think it should be available to all or medical patients only? Weigh in on our comments sections if you support Bortell’s efforts or believe the medicinal benefits of pot are overstated.
