Chron’s disease is a long-term, chronic health condition that affects 700,000 people in the United States and is the result of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Its symptoms can be mild or severe, and may include rectal bleeding, frequent and recurring diarrhea, significant weight loss, fever, abdominal pain and cramping, low energy and fatigue, and a reduced appetite. In severe cases, Chron’s can cause intense vomiting, a high fever and intestinal obstructions or abscesses.

Stephen Taylor is an Australian father who has not one, but two daughters afflicted with this devastating disease. (Around 20 percent of people with Chron’s have a blood relative with some form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.) After watching his daughters, Ariel and Morgan, suffer with the condition for years, he started researching medical marijuana. Having tried without success to get a doctor to process the complicated Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) application which allows access to medical marijuana for him, he took matters into his own hands and started juicing cannabis for his daughters. (Related: High-fat diet found to reduce symptoms of Chron’s disease.)

Even though medical marijuana use has been legal in Australia since 2016, it is very difficult to obtain. Though experts estimate that around 100,000 Australians are self-medicating with cannabis for a variety of health problems, only 500 patients have official government authorization to do so. This made getting his hands on medical marijuana very difficult for Taylor, and he decided to grow his own.

Traditional Chron’s treatments had done very little good and had caused the women serious side effects. Morgan had such severe arthritis that she was unable to walk on some days. She also had a very serious anaphylactic reaction to a drug called Infliximab, which caused her throat to close, her face to swell up and a rash all over her body.

Ariel was so ill from the Chron’s that at one point she nearly hemorrhaged to death.

“I was so sick I wasn’t able to eat … I was in constant pain,” she told Australia’s ABC News. “It was pretty intense.”

When Ariel was admitted to hospital for surgery to remove her entire colon, the doctors warned her parents that she could die.

After Taylor started giving Morgan and Ariel the juiced cannabis they both achieved excellent results within the first month. Both women were able to gain weight, and Taylor believes that Morgan, who had been admitted to hospital repeatedly weighing as little as 32 kilograms (71 pounds), went into remission. She was able to exercise, and even got her weight up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds). (Related: Beat Chron’s disease naturally.)

“It just felt incredible,” she told ABC.

Waking Times reported:

Taylor decided to administer cannabis to his daughter in juice form. This means that he was juicing the green material of the plant, such as the leaves and stems. His ideal dose was 30 ml of cannabis juice, administered three times per day. Taylor decided to grow his own plants to be able to obtain all of the green material that he needed.

Somebody must have blown the whistle on the family, however, and because nobody would help Taylor to follow the proper channels to obtain permission, the government considers his activities to be illegal. The family’s home was raided, and 107 plants were confiscated. (Related: Learn about the healing power of medical marijuana at Cannabis.news)

Taylor now faces criminal charges.

Worst of all, Morgan and Ariel no longer have access to the first treatment that has ever done them more good than harm.

“I kind of say that I’m not living anymore, I’m just surviving and that’s what’s really hard,” Morgan told ABC.

Sources for this article include:

WakingTimes.com

ABC.net.au

CrohnsAndColitis.com

CrohnsAndColitis.com