Losing my job, or losing my kid, what would any mother do . Reporter tonight, the promise this is what you give up when you start using cannabis. Reporter the risks. We dont know the potential sideeffects. We dont want to make their seizures better and make their lives worse. Reporter and the families caught in the middle. Its awesome. I dont feel like a monster anymore. One kid, one day of no suffering is absolutely worth it. Reporter growing hope. Good evening, and welcome to dateline, im lester holt. Should medical marijuana be legal . Does it work . For which diseases . For doctors, its about the science. For lawmakers, its about politics. But for the families youll meet, its so much simpler. Its about their children. Heres harry smith. Reporter three mothers and their children. On this winter day in virginia, they have a big hill to climb. Each child is desperately ill. Each has a form of epilepsy. No one else that i knew had a kid with seizures this bad, and no one knew how to treat it. Reporter illnesses so insidious they have stymied an army of doctors and specialists. A year of huge emotional stress on our family. Reporter but these women believe there is something that might help. Something illegal in virginia, an oil extracted from marijuana. What is your hope for medical marijuana . To meet our daughter. To meet who she really is. Reporter to make that happen, these families are attempting to do something theyve been told is impossible. They must change a law that has stood for decades. Reporter tonight, well follow them on a remarkable journey not only through the halls of government, but to the rocky mountains, where people with all sorts of illnesses are seeking help. For these people, marijuana isnt about getting high, its about getting well. Give kisses. Okay, thats enough. Reporter lisa and bobby smith were elated when their daughter haley arrived on august 20th, 2000. She was the Perfect Little baby or so they thought. Are you playing the piano, haily . Can you play some more . Her first seizure was when she was five months old. Five months . Yeah. Right, up until that point . Normal, happy, developmentally right on track. Abc. But she was also my first child, so i could have had blinders on and didnt see some of the signs that were there. Reporter haleys seizures became more frequent. More violent. She wasnt diagnosed till she was 7, so that was a true roller coaster. Yay, 7 years old. It was awful the first seven years because we we didnt know what was wrong with her. Reporter over the years, haleys mystery only deepened she was eventually diagnosed with dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that can be fatal. Do you live your life on a kind of razors edge . Anywhere you went with her you would just hold her and think, okay, she has a seizure right here, what am i going to do . Reporter treating dravet syndrome is a challenge. Quite often, epilepsy drugs dont work. Sometimes they do more harm than good. She was actually in the emergency room every week. And thats not exaggerating. Every week from january to april in 2005. Reporter by 2012, haley was a teenager and the seizures had only gotten worse. Haley was having about 300 seizures a year. And to us, that was okay. You know, 300 seizures a year was it was okay. Yeah, we can handle that. You know nobody can comprehend that. I know. Right . People that are watching this. You said it was a pretty good year cause she only had 300 that year. Yeah. Reporter all those seizures took a toll on lisa, now also raising and home schooling twin boys and bobby trying to make a living as a contractor, and support his family. What else starts with h . Hat. Reporter about three years ago, desperate for anything that might be able to help her daughter, lisa stumbled upon a most unconventional treatment. She found a mom in colorado who said that marijuana worked wonders. We were on dozens of drugs and each one worst than the next. Reporter paige figi is that mother. She lived in colorado springs. And her daughter charlotte was diagnosed with dravet as a toddler. She was on seven daily seizure drugs at two years old and had failed every drug at two years old as well. Reporter charlotte was so sick, she was in hospice care. Paiges husband, matt, was a green beret. Deployed to afghanistan for much of this time. Reporter paige felt very alone. I hit rock bottom with her. The hospital said theres nothing left. We dont have anything left to do. Were sorry, you should just go home and deal with this at home. So when they tell you, just go home and deal with this at home, are they basically saying, go home and watch your child die . I literally i brought her home and i put her on a do not resuscitate. My husband had to sign it from afghanistan. And i was just going to say goodbye. And every night its actually, and ill say this. I was praying for her to die, because it was so bad to watch the suffering that shes going through. You just wish, and she didnt. So its hard for me to admit that, but she didnt. Its very difficult to see a kid suffering that greatly, that you actually do, you just wish for it to stop. And in her case the only way for it to stop was for her to just pass away in her sleep. Reporter but, paige didnt give up. She kept looking. She and matt both discovered online reports of epileptic children whose seizures abated or even disappeared when they were given marijuana. They wondered if it could work for charlotte. We were in a legal state. I got her a red card. I got two doctors. For medical marijuana . For medical marijuana. I just started looking into it. Her epileptologist gave me the go ahead. Reporter paige was particularly interested in an overseas study that suggested oils made from a cannabis plant high in a compound called canabadiol. A nonpyschoactive element in marijuana, seemed to be effective in reducing seizures. A friend put paige in touch with a grower. Together they made the oil for charlotte. Shes catatonic in a wheelchair on oxygen on a feeding tube and i put it in her feeding tube. In a measured amount, very low dose to start. And just waited to see if it would work. And she stopped seizing. So she didnt have a seizure for seven days. She didnt have 300 seizures that week. Nothing had done ever this. Time out. Shes having 300 seizures a week. You think shes going to die, right . And you introduce this for the very first time. And it just stops. Yep, her seizures stopped. And she didnt have a side effect. Reporter that was then. Where you going . Up the trail . Reporter this is now. That squeal of joy is from the now 8yearold charlotte, who kharly, as her family calls her, speeding through the pine trees of colorado on the zip line her mother matt built. Pretty good zipliner. Reporter reading paige and charlottes story online gave lisa smith back in virginia new hope, but also cause for concern. The use of marijuana, even as a medicine made her family uncomfortable, yet the benefits seemed to outweigh the stigma. Pot though, wasnt and still isnt legal in virginia. So the big question for the smiths was, should they uproot their family and move to colorado . Moving was not an option . I would say it was always an option, but it was way off. So what did you do . Fighting. We chose to fight. Reporter fighting meant lisa smith would have to get the virginia General Assembly to completely change the way they thought about marijuana and convince them to change a state law and she knew she couldnt do it alone. So at the age of 14, she has nothing left. If she was your child, what would you do . Reporter coming up call them a band of mothers, fighting fear of the unknown, can they change minds and the law . Can anybody say, well, thats crazy, because its never going to happen . Oh, yeah. Owl the outsiders, you say, marijuana and theyre like, w [ gasps ] cups your teeth to break up plaque, and rotates to sweep it away. And oralb delivers a clinically proven superior clean vs. Sonicare diamond clean. My mouth feels super clean. Oralb. Know youre getting a superior clean. Im never going back to a manual brush. Discover new magnum double Peanut Butter. Made with a perfect balance of Peanut Butter ice cream, Peanut Buttery sauce, and belgian chocolate. Discover magnum chocolate pleasure. I know blowdrying fries but im never gonna stop because now, ive got pantene shampoo and conditioner. Pantenes got the prov formula to make my hair so strong the damage of 100 blowdries is gone. Strong is beautiful. ™ pantene. 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Well hes definitely going to lose a stroke on this hole. If youre a golf commentator, you whisper. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. This golf course is electric. Lisa and bobby smith have cared for their daughter haley, who suffers from a confounding form of epilepsy. Over time, they met other families struggling to cope with these extreme forms of epilepsy. In 2014, some of these families finally met in person at a seminar to learn how to lobby their state government. Together, they decided to do something audacious. Convince the state legislature to make legal room for a very specific medical marijuana. If it was just a matter of getting the oil for the children, healthwise, everybodys on board for that. Were from fairfax, virginia. Reporter this was the core group beth and patrick collins, and their daughter jennifer, who suffers from jeavons syndrome, another extreme form of epilepsy. And jennifer has a statement. Shes a litte nervous so im going to read it for her. We came down to the capital today to lobby for medical marijuana. Reporter rounding out the group is teresa elder her daughter ashley and her son tommy, now 22, he wasnt supposed to make it to his third birthday. Reporter the hope for all of these families was that an oil, extracted from a marijuana plant, might help where all other medications had failed. So you as a group get together and say, weve got to get the law changed in virginia. Right. Did anybody say, well, thats crazy because its never going to happen . Oh, yeah, all the outsiders did, no way. It will never happen. And why . Because its the m word. You can be in there talkin to someone, legislator, delegate, senator and they say, oh, hi, you know, whats your name. Blah, blah, and then youre talking, and then you say marijuana, and theyre like, you can see the reaction change. Reporter changing the law in virginia is critical for teresa and her son tommy because as soon as tommy doesnt become a resident of virginia he loses all the services i fought for twentytwo years to get. Services tommy cant live without. Like, he has home nursing. Now that hes an adult, he qualifies for medicaid. When your bills are between 500 and 600,000 a year, thats a lot. So the virginia families fight begins. On this day, they crowd into this hearing room. Nervous, but determined to begin the long process of changing the minds and hearts of these lawmakers. The families are not asking for legalize marijuana in the state but they are asking for permission to use cannibisbased oils that have shown promise in treating epilepsy. Reporter republican speaker of the house, james howell, listened to the parents in a meeting but was far from optimistic. Please dont hold out any great hopes, its a tough thing but i dont want to set up any false aspirations. Reporter a new law would have to pass both chambers of the virginia legislature. This is the first step, a committee hearing. Mr. Chairman. Reporter the proceedings begin with state senator dave marsden explaining the bill hes introducing. Virginians should not have to become medical refugees from their homes and live in other states. If you could introduce yourself reporter then, its the families turn. My name is beth collins and this is our youngest daughter, jennifer, she was going to testify but shes not feeling well today. We had exhausted all other treatments. The side effects of her medication included rages, cognitive functioning issues excuse me. This was not the happy go lucky child i once knew. Reporter before beth collins can finish testifying, it happens. Right there in the hearing room, haley has a seizure. Lisa struggles to stabilize her daughter and tries to regain her composure. She still wants to speak to the lawmakers. This is leeza lisa smith. Reporter she collects her thoughts and she steps to the microphone. This is normal for me this is daily for me. Its been stated we dont know the longer term effects of medical marijuana but i can tell you i know the long term effect of uncontrolled seizures. Itll be cognitive decline and premature death. I look to see if my daughters lips are blue. I watch her when she sleeps, i look for the rise and fall of her chest. At 14. Thats not what we do. So i ask you, i beseech you, please let this come out of committee. Reporter finally its teresa elders turn to speak. She doesnt say much, but what she says comes straight from the heart. Reporter so let me leave you with this, if i come back here next january its very probable ill come by myself and youll recognize me and if i have an empty stroller, this very testimony will come flooding back to you. Please help us help our children. Reporter just seven days later, tommy would be rushed to the icu and put on life support. For teresa and the other families, the stakes couldnt be higher. Coming up, help from a higher power . I started to realize theres absolutely nothing thats unchristian about helping people with a plant. Reporter meet the remarkable Stanley Brothers. When dateline continues. Good job. Reporter seven short days after teresa elder told the virginia lawmakers her son was running out of time, tommy elder was overcome by a powerful seizure. Bounce it to me. Reporter his sister ashley says its never easy for her brother. Im gonna get it. Sometimes hell come up to you and just give you this look like, hey, im about to have a seizure, and like grab onto you, and then sometimes hell kinda yell out as hes going into it, and you just hear this big, you know, grunt, or a yell while hes going into his convulsions. And its pretty scary. Reporter this seizure lasted almost an hour. It was so severe that tommy was rushed to the icu. He went into respirtory failure. His lung collapsed and the seizures continued. His mother captured one on camera. Reporter teresa sat by tommys bedside day and night as doctors worked to stabilize him. This was the 39th time in his life that tommy needed life support. Teresa and the other virginia families were now more focused than ever. But as the legislation they believed would help their children, made its way through the virginia General Assembly, lawmakers continued to ask whether there was proof the oils even worked. The old hypocratic oath first said, nono harm. We seem to have abandoned that and replaced it with, first do something. Reporter to try to find the answer, we went to colorado. Medicinal and recreational pot are legal here and because of that the state has become something of a new lourdes. With people flocking here for cannabisbased cures. The main characters of this beautifully written novel are the stanleys. I would like them to step forward. Reporter and in the middle of it all are the Stanley Brothers. All six of them. Reporter the Brothers Story begins small and in a personal way, theyd begun to legally grow Medicinal Marijuana and gave some to a cousin dying from cancer. It really prolonged his life and gave him a better quality of life. I mean the doctors pretty much told him, go home. Get ready to die . Yeah. Reporter but it was another patient who transformed the brothers mission. For, it was joel stanley who brought paige figi the marijuana that was just right for her epileptic daughter, charlotte. We had what she was looking for. A nonpsychoactive type of plant and i went to her house and i started talking to her and charlotte had two seizures right there within the first hour of us sitting down talking. So this became very real but it became a very difficult question. Will you make something for my child whos already very sick . Reporter Charlotte Figgi was the first person to get the oil the brothers made, paige says it stopped her daughters seizures. Yeah. Reporter now, having hired botanists and scientists and built a lab, on a large scale, they are making the very oils the virginia families want to give their children. They even named the cannibis oil after their first user. Its called charlottes web. Charlie, ya ready . Reporter the oil was so effective, the figis eventually took charlotte off of all her meds and to this day charlottes web is all she takes. And we do that in the morning and the night and thats all kharly needs. You have to indulge me on this. Did anybody think, this is a miracle . I still think it is and then another one happens every day. So youre from this big family. Evangelical christians, right . Was there a part of whatever moral tuning fork is inside you to say, this is a nonstarter . Dont a lot of evangelical families produce rebels and [ laughter ] you know, i was all about it. Once i started to look into it, i started to realize theres absolutely nothing thats unchristian about helping people with a plant. Reporter the brothers say the oil is now helping hundreds of other children with epilepsy and the cost . 250 a bottle. It lasts two months. I wanna plant this flower. Reporter a number of the families who come to colorado seeking help, wind up at the realm of caring. A support group the stanleys helped establish. Reporter Heather Jackson runs realm of caring. Zaki is her son. She says hes been seizure free for the two years hes been on charlottes web. People hear these stories, they see these children, they still find it hard to believe. I know. I mean, i would find it hard to believe if i wasnt living it. Hopefully, what well be able to do with the realm of Caring Foundation is to establish the research and collect in a way that the Science Community can say that its valid because youre right. Right now his story is just anecdotal evidence. Its just a good story. Its a darn good story though. Reporter and yet, as encouraging as the anecdotal evidence may be, theres been no Clinical Research on the safety or efficacy of charlottes web. Because marijuana is known as a scheduleone drug, its considered by the federal government as dangerous as heroin. Serious research in this country on marijuana treatments has been sparse. No one from the government, you know, has said, okay, buddy, you with this stuff, youre giving this to kids with epilepsy, are you nuts . You know, has the fda called you and said, wheres the proof . We cant go making claims that are not approved by the fda and we dont. The resounding theme we get back from the regulatory agencies and the medical community s lets research this. That was not being said a few years ago. Now it is being said. Reporter miracle or not, its precisely this oil, charlottes web, that teresa elder back in virginia was praying her state legislature would allow her to possess. And even as her son tommy clung to life in an icu, there came a most unexpected visitor. Senator dave marsden. He came to see tommy in the icu, which i believe helped him realize, wow, shes right. We dont have time. Reporter the senator decided to add an emergency clause to the legislation he was backing. A clause that would make the bill take effect immediately. If passed, the families wait would be over. Reporter coming up, a rare look inside the lab where charlottes web is made. When you look at this plant, what do you see . I see beauty. I see wonderment. I see incredible opportunity. Reporter can one drug really replace all these . This is what you give up when you start using cannibis. When dateline continues. T. Have you considered using a pleasure gel . No we never have. We never tried one. So one product i think you guys would love, ky yours and mine. There is one warming and one tingling. When they combine it creates an intense new sensation. Oooh hoo hoo hoo when you discover something new together its like falling in love all over again. Is this something youd try to spice things up . Tonight. And thats how theyre made. No klondike ice cream meets candy bar. The best ice cream bar ever conceived. To show your roots with roots touchup from nicen easy. Seamlessly blends with leading shades, even salon shades in just 10 minutes. No roots. No grays. Just the most shade choices for natural looking color as real as you are. So go ahead, show the world your roots with americas 1 root touchup. Maybe too much. Illows. Go ahead, call me a hoarder. Ive got these little enablers, ziploc spacebags. See . Way more space. [whispered] for more pillows. Sc johnson. If an electric toothbrush was going to clean better than a manual. He said sure. But dont get just any one. Get one inspired by dentists. With a round brush head. Go pro with oralb. Oralbs rounded brush head cups your teeth to break up plaque, and rotates to sweep it away. And oralb delivers a clinically proven superior clean vs. Sonicare diamond clean. My mouth feels super clean. Oralb. Know youre getting a superior clean. Im never going back to a manual brush. Reporter charlottes web, the mystery oil made from cannabis. Its what many of the virginia families are fighting to have access to, believing it may help treat the epilepsy that plagues their children. Welcome to cw botanicals. Reporter we were invited for a rare look inside the lab where the oil is actually made. This is our rotary evaporator. Reporter this is a side of the cannabis business few people ever see. No tie dye. No black lights. No bob marley posters. Just plants and science. Bear reel is the lead botanist in the Stanley Brothers lab. This is charlottes web. Right. What do you do with this here . Right now, what we do is we make our whole plant extract with this plant. We cultivate it outdoor in the field. We grow it up till it flowers. We harvest it dry and bring it back to the lab to do an extraction on it. That turns into our charlottes web hemp oil. Would you call that a marijuana plant or a hemp plant . Its a hemp plant. Reporter the distinction that the Stanley Brothers and everyone that works for them makes between hemp and marijuana is important to understand. A botanist would tell you the plants are the same but, according to the federal farm bill of 2014, a plant with less than. 3 of thc, the ingredient that gets you high, is hemp. So, this is all hemp. It has lower than 0. 3 percent thc. Lower than 0. 3 percent . Thats right. But it has a naturally very high amount of cbd. Reporter cbd is the chemical compound that some believe, helps people with epilepsy. When you look at this plant, what do you see . I see beauty. I see wonderment. I see incredible opportunity. Do you think the rest of the Scientific Community in america is seeing the same thing . I think a lot of people are waiting to see how it pans out. Reporter one of the people very interested in how it pans out is dr. Amy brooks kayal, a neurologist in denver and the president of the american epilepsy society. She says currently theres just not enough science to prove the oils work or how they effect affect patients. Theres no question that based on the science, there is potential there for a component of marijuana and possibly cannabis oil to be an effective treatment. But we dont know that yet, and most importantly we dont know the potential side effects. We dont want to make their seizures better and make their lives worse. Reporter dr. Brookskayal suggests its possible some of the improvement parents are seeing may be a kind of placebo effect. The expectations of the family and the amount of the investment that the family made to get this therapy might have weighed into their perception of whether or not their child responded. Reporter she says more clinical studies need to be done. In medicine, believing that we know the truth without doing the study is a very unsafe thing to do. The reports from a Single Family or a single child doesnt mean that anybody else is gonna respond that way. Reporter dr. Alan bowling is a yale trained neurologist in denver, who also wants to see more research. He says marijuana has the potential to impact a wide array of diseases, including his specialty multiple sclerosis. Do you see potential for marijuana as a treatment for ms . What i think holds lots of potential for the future is that there very clearly are marijuanarelated biochemical systems in the nervous system and other parts of the body. Reporter in effect, he says the human body may be wired to utilize marijuana. Dr. Bowling treats bob, who asked us not to reveal his last name. Bob was a Trial Attorney for 25 years until on my 50th birthday, i was told that i had ms. Reporter ms affects every patient differently but dr. Bowling told bob there is research overseas that suggests marijuana can help with two of the most severe symptoms, muscle spasms and pain. Bob buys marijuana at a legal dispensary and ingests it with a vaporizer. I use a strain called harlequin, which allegedly, is five cbds to two thcs. I could take, like, two or three hits, and it would really take the edge off the pain without getting me high. Reporter we traveled down i25 from denver into the mountains of divide, colorado. There we met army veteran matt kahl. Its weighed heavily on my mind for a very long time. Reporter kahl has ptsd, after two tours of duty in afghanistan left him with a shattered skull and a lit any of other conditions. I didnt believe that i had the right to live anymore. So ten months after i got back, right before christmas, i attempted suicide for the first time. Reporter in his darkest hour he tried smoking marijuana. He said it made him feel better and he became convinced, it helped his condition. Matt and his wife aimee say they had no choice but to move from north carolina. I knew i had to move somewhere legal. So i became a refugee from my home. A marijuana refugee . I live here in colorado now because here we actually have freedom. This is my exit paperwork from the military. Reporter according to matt, the vas treatment plan was to give him a menu full of prescription drugs that he says turned him into a zombie. This is what you give up when you start using cannabis. These are all meds that were prescribed to you, for you, from all the different ailments that you suffered from . Yes. Reporter matts says using marijuana helps him more than all the pharmaceuticals he was on, but without more research, theres no way to know for sure. For matt, theres no question. Has marijuana saved your life . Yes, i wouldnt be alive today without cannabis. Id be dead, i guarantee it. Did you get your husband back . I got my husband back. I got my husband back. Yeah, and my best friend. Reporter back in virginia, theres good news for the families. After six grueling days in the icu, tommy elder made it home. And in the two months that passed since we last saw them, the legislation theyve been fighting for has worked its way through the virginia General Assembly and now it will all come down to a critical vote. Coming up jennifer grew up here, you know. A family forced to live apart in search of a treatment for their child. Will the upcoming vote help change that . Look at us back in school i had the whitest smile. Now im going to show up to the reunion with this whole situation. Oh please. Do what im doing. Use crest whitestrips crest 3d White Whitestrips. Remove 14 years of stains. I knew i recognized that smile. Crest 3d White Whitestrips the way to whiten. Pwhatve we got . 5. Bp 64 40 sterilize sites. Multiple foreign objects in the body. 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Its now february and they have come a long way. After today, the law will either pass or the vote will be put off for at least a year. Lisa smith is here with haley. Teresa elder is here, too though tommy couldnt make it. And patrick and beth collins are here too, with 15yearold jennifer and 17yearold alexandria. Of the virginia families, the collins are the only one who have experienced the benefits of cannabis oil first hand. A year ago, after hearing about charlottes web oil, their family made a decision to beth and jennifer would move to colorado for the oil, while the rest of the family stayed behind in virginia. I felt we really had no other option but to try it. We didnt really plan it all too long because it was too painful to plan out too long. This is our home and jennifer grew up here, you know. And my familys here and my other daughter goes to school here. Reporter the driving force in the collins decision to split their family up were the side effects of the medicines jennifer was on, side effects which they say were getting more and more horrific. Did you feel like you were losing your daughter . Absolutely, we were losing our whole family. Just watching her cognitively decline and watching these rages that, you know, were devastating for her mentally. We had times when we had to call 911 to come and have police come and help me because hed be out of town or something and you know, i was afraid of my daughter. A little girl . A little girl. Reporter in colorado, beth got the charlottes web oil from the Stanley Brothers and gave it to jennifer, but it didnt work. So the brothers gave beth something else, thca. Beth says that one did. What is it like for you to be free of some of those side effects . Its awesome. I i dont feel like a monster anymore. A monster . Because when i had the rages, i felt like monster afterwards, because i would just physically attack my parents. And i didnt have any control over it. What would you tell people who think, we just think this is this whole idea of medical marijuana, or that cannabis has any medicinal value, they just think that its a bunch of baloney. Id tell them that ive seen it work. It worked with me. Ive seen it work in a bunch of other kids. And that its an amazing plant. You get on the plane, fly out to colorado, see with your own eyes whats happening. What did you think . This is amazing. Shes back. My daughters back. Her personality, you know. Life changing. Reporter but splitting the family and being apart was too much. Beth and jennifer moved back to virginia, and thats why on this february morning they are gathered here, with teresa elder and the smiths in the house gallery to await the final vote. The house is now in session. What this bill says is one simple thing. If you or your child has intractable epilepsy, and you are caught with this oil, the commonwealth of virginia is not going to make a criminal out of you. Reporter the families sit. Anxious and waiting. The bills listed from page one to thirty seven. Reporter there are others bills up for vote first. House bill 1950. Reporter huddled high above the politicians deciding their fate and the well being of their children. Finally, the bill number pops up on the vote board. The vote is called. The mothers draw in tighter and cling to the hope that all this hard work wont be in vain. We cannot change the prescription reporter you could feel the tension at the Public Gallery in richmond, virginia. But then as if the numbers on a Lottery Ticket appeared in a row. Ayes, 98. Nos, zero. They won. Theyd been told by a capitol insider that emotion doesnt play in this building. Really . The final vote is 98 delegates for and two abstentions and not a single no vote. These parents had done it. Their children had done it with them. Reporter two weeks after the vote, Virginia Governor Terry Mcauliffe walks into the office once occupied by Thomas Jefferson and, amid the flashes of the local press corps, signs the legislation into law. Okay, folks, it is now law. [ applause ] i cant tell you, first of all, how much i appreciate the great work of delegate dave albo and senator marsden. I also want to thank the courageous mothers and fathers who have been down here lobbying to get this legislation passed. Reporter all of the virginia families are here for this historic moment and haley even with a life threatening disease, charms one last politician. Every parent feels the same way, you were going to leave the Common Wealth of virginia, now you can stay. And you saw the tears flowing down the cheeks of everybody in that room, they want to stay here. Reporter it is an important victory for these families but it does not make marijuana legal in virginia. It allows them to possess, with a doctors certification, the oils from colorado. A wig Big Questions now looms. Because pot remains illegal at the federal level, is it legal for the families to go get the oil in colorado and bring it back to virginia . Technically you still cant. Bring it in. Mail it, drive it, fly it. Right. Technically. Technically. Technically. Right . Yeah, but were not technical people. [ laughter ] yes, im here to pick up the oil. So where are you from . From virginia. Reporter one week later bobby smith did travel to colorado to pick up the oil from the Stanley Brothers. Most of them stop right there. Reporter because of the work the mothers did bobby will not face prosecution for having the oil in virginia. But he is defying federal laws by taking it out of colorado. The moms ran the marathon, and i got to finish it. Thank you. So nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Wow yes as far as weve travelled, and as much as the moms have done, our hopes and prayers this medication works. Reporter as the sun rises in virginia its a new day. After bobbys trip to colorado, haley starts treatments with charlottes web. There is no guarantee it will work, but the smiths believe its worth a try. It is there there it is. Tastes like brussels sprouts . Reporter lisa and bobby are hopeful as they wait to see if it works. Jennifer collins is using the thca she first tried in colorado. And beth and patrick are lowering the doses of her antiepileptic pharmaceuticals. So now that you know that thca works for your daughter, are you prepared to break or circumvent federal law in order to make sure she continues to get it . Well, we wouldnt have worked this hard for this bill if we werent. Reporter for teresa elder and her son tommy, the situation is a bit more complicated. Teresa works for the federal government. By law, you cant possess it because youre a federal employee. Right. Right . But do you have an overriding moral responsibility to your child . If a doctor says it might be able to help, if all your Research Says it might be able to help, do you help your kid, or do you defy your government . Thats the huge dilemma. Because i cant defy my government, because i cant lose my job. But if i have to choose between losing my job or losing my kid, what would any mother do . Reporter as far as the parents in virginia travelled and as far as that first mother, paige figi travelled all these parents say, there is farther to go. Federal government needs to finally step in and get involved. Reporter paige figi is lobbying on capitol hill, for a law named after her daughter that would make chralottes web legal nationally. And all the virginia families are fighting for federal changes as well that would make medical marijuana easier to access and research. We have to face that argument that this is not fda approved because it cant be because its a schedule one. Reporter taking their case to lawmakers like new york senator kirsten gillibrand. Congress shouldnt stand in the way of children who need medicine. Reporter dr. Amy brookskayal says we dont yet know enough about cannibisbased treatments, acknowledges that marijuanas status as a scheduleone controlled substance creates a catch 22. Is the fact that marijuana is a scheduleone drug, is it preventing widescale research that could be ongoing right now . The fact that marijuana is a scheduleone drug is a significant barrier to research. Is it completely preventing it . No. Is it slowing it down . Absolutely. In my opinion, should marijuana be scheduleone . Absolutely not. There are known medical uses for marijuana. Reporter paige figi says because of those known medical uses, shell keep fighting until federal law is changed. I am just willing to go fight for this for other kids because i dont want any one more kid to have to go through if i have to fight all these years for this, to help one kid not suffer for one day or one hour, it is worth it. I mean, one kid one day of no suffering is absolutely worth it. Reporter lisa and bobby say after a couple of months haley is suffering less. To date, her seizures have been reduced by 40 . Nice job, haley if charlottes web works for haley, they will no longer have to fly to colorado. Because of virginias new law, the Stanley Brothers have decided to ship it there, and other states with similar laws. In spite of the fact that several federal agencies maintain that oils like charlottes web are illegal. For these families its been an incredible journey. That was once even considered impossible but through it all their inspiration has remained the same. Theres nothing i wouldnt do my for daughter, either of my daughters. Were just like any other parent trying to do whats best for their kid. When you have access to it now, if you didnt get the oil now and you waited and she passed during a seizure, youd always say, why didnt we go . Why didnt we risk it . You know, breaking a federal law would be okay if i still had my daughter. So, we choose her life. Thats all for now. Im lester holt. Thanks for joining us. This sunday, two huge stories upend iing the campaign. For the republicans, accepting the fact that donald trump is here to stay. Lets assume that somebody else becomes president , wouldnt that be horrifying . And how do the opponents now deal with the juggernaut. For the democrats, it is the hillarys emails. Nobody talks to me about it other than you guys. It adds fuel to the biden fire, and did the Vice President just tease the 2016 dream ticket by meeting we liz beth warren, and plus trump on hillary. And in her rein, look at what happened. Everything fell apart. And sitting down with car lly