(gentle music) - I got a call from Caleb's daycare that he had a fever.

It didn't seem like a big deal until he had that first seizure, and then we ended up in the hospital.

And that began our journey to get Caleb seizure free.

(dramatic music) - Over 50 million people worldwide live with epilepsy.

All genders are affected, all ages are affected.

Epilepsy can be caused as the result of brain infections, a traumatic brain injury, a stroke, underlying genetic conditions, brain tumors, and then of course, any neonatal conditions affecting the growth of a baby's brain can result in epilepsy, as well.

- Over time, Caleb's been through 26 medications, failed them all.

- We know that 70% of patients with epilepsy respond to the first seizure medication.

So then for the 30% that doesn't respond, a second seizure medicine is typically trialed.

And then after a patient fails two seizures medications, they're considered medically refractory, meaning that their seizures are resistant to medications.

- [Tracie] Caleb, you hear mommy?

C'mon, breathe for me.

Take a big breath.

- Mommy takes care of me because at nighttime, sometimes I do have seizures and then she will come straight into my room and then give me some medicine.

She loves me a lot and I love her.

- I stumbled across a story about a little girl that had had seizures and they had used cannabis oil.

It wasn't really an option because it wasn't legal.

I talked to the Epilepsy Foundation and asked if they knew of any place we could get into any studies, and that's how we met Dr. Lyons.

(gentle inspirational music) - Three mothers in one week with children with severe childhood epilepsy came to me and asked me what I knew about medical cannabis.

And when I went back to look at basic research, that its efficacy was identical, if not superior to what we have on the market, and I knew that, if at all possible, I had to get it for these children.

- [Dr. Lyons] In the double blinded placebo and expanded access studies, more than 50% of the patients had a meaningful reduction in the seizure types that we measured, and that response was sustained for more than a year.

- What seizure drugs including cannabidiols broadly do is they reduce the hyperexcitability that is a result of the cannabis-binding multiple receptors in the brain and in the nervous system.

- Anecdotally in our clinical studies, what we found was not only was there an improvement in seizure control, but we actually saw some very compelling improvements in functional status.

- [Tracie] Caleb started to have more energy, he was able to get out of the wheelchair that he had used for years.

Just happier, more present, more social, and cognitively he was a lot better.

- One of the challenges with CBD use more broadly across the country, is that CBD can affect liver function negatively, and actually there are case reports of untoward effect of drug interactions of CBD products on other medications, including those that are critical to prevention of stroke and heart attack.

As a larger society and country, those are some of the challenges that we now face to make sure that we keep people safe as we avail ourselves to some of the benefits of cannabis and hemp.

(gentle upbeat music) - The next journey is to get Caleb a medical marijuana card in the state of Virginia.

Having the best quality of life with the least side effects has definitely always been my goal, but I feel like we're starting over because now I have to get a doctor that's gonna give us a medical card.

There is still a lot of stigma with medical marijuana.

The fact that it's still a Schedule I at the federal level makes it tough for doctors, makes it tough for employers, and makes it tough for people that really need to have access to it.

And my son is one of those.