Idaho Mother Is Fighting to Improve Idaho’s Marijuana Laws

Kelsey Osborne’s daughter suffers from seizures. She was recently in court for misdemeanor charges for giving her daughter a smoothie with marijuana butter in it. Osborne said the marijuana butter helped treat hallucinations and seizures after stopping Risperidone medication therapy.

Her trial begins in February, but in the meantime she wants to see Idaho’s marijuana laws loosened, Magic Valley reports. Her attorney, Thomas Curl, says that the argument in their case is that her daughter was not hurt, so she should not be charged with injury to a child.

Osborne said, “I think a lot of people get benefits from cannabis use, whether it’s form seizures, or cerebral palsy, or anything like that. I don’t believe there’s any way possible that I could have injured my daughter by doing what I did. If anything, I helped her.”

Idaho has not legalized medical marijuana fully yet, but CBD oil is permitted. Governor Otter vetoed the bill. Decriminalization efforts are also underway in the state.

Moms for Marijuana International founder Serra Frank said, “Kelsey’s story definitely shows the failure of prohibition in Idaho.”

In 2017, Idaho may return to discussing the use of CBD oil to treat some medical conditions. Some state lawmakers are interested in introducing a bill, according to Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

Hoffman said, “They’re concerned that the state of Idaho…considers their (constituents’) ailment and the treatment of their ailment as a crime against society. These are legislators that are very concerned about the well-being of their constituents, and they want to do something about it.”

Attention has been drawn to the state legislature to rethink its marijuana laws. Hoffman supports CBD oil legalization. He said, “You don’t see problems occurring in the states where CBD oil use is legal. We can use that to further bolster our contention that this is a policy that generally helps people.”