now more than a dozen states have approved cannabis to treat autism and for some it's the jackpot. >> ready? >> time for mommy time for drops. >> but for others, it is a gamble. >> every day i give the medicine to my daughter is a potential day for me ending up with a felon. >> the death penalty of family law. >> what if it was your child? would you take the risk? an ancient plant, to treat a mysterious disorder of the brain. this is weed 6: marijuana and autism. you're about to see kara's life. i want to warn you this will be hard to watch. kara has severe autism. >> kara, stop it. stop. >> reporter: her fits are dangerous, frequent, and disturbingly violent. >> i decided to journal all of her hitting and i started back in 2016. >> this is her mother. we met up at their home in texas. >> closed fisted punches to her face, hold her down. aggression and self-injurious behaviors are unfortunately very common in especially children with severe autism. >> for three decades she was the chief of the pediatric department. >> even some children higher functioning will have aggressive or self-injurious behaviors. anything from repetitively banging their head against a wall to hitting their head with their hands to pinching themselves. >> is there any idea why that happens as part of the autism spectrum? >> it may be very similar to a lot of the other repetitive behaviors that they have. >> autism. asd for autism spectrum disorder is by definition a wide array of behaviors. but mild or severe, the two could symptoms are social communication challenges, one-third are nonverbal, and, second, restrictive or repetitive behaviors like rocking, flapping, even hitting. >> let's take a drink, girl. >> particularly challenging for this family, kara is part of the 25% of children with asd who are aggressive, throwing objects, intentionally breaking things, hitting people, including themselves. making life unimaginably challenging for kara and her parents. but life has never been easy for kara. >> i went and did the blood tests. my levels were high. they said, oh, you're pregnant. >> after years of battling infertility, she was pregnant with twins. >> it was 21 weeks gestation. i feel this pain immediately. >> you were incoherent. >> he found me with my head on my sink area and i had already vomited and i was already unconscious. >> oh, wow >> i had a stroke. >> it would be touch and go for 72 hours. doctors monitoring her and the baby's every move. and then five days after the stroke, her water broke. >> when they came out of the -- they were so small, right, they were just so tiny. >> baby a, named keely was off the ventilator in two weeks and had no complications from the premature birth. but baby b, kara, would struggle from the very beginning. at 10 hours old, she had a brain bleed. yet after months of round-the-clock care in the nciu, kara finally came home, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. they thought this would be kara's biggest challenge. at 9 months she started intense physical and speech therapy and christie kept careful track of her daughter's progress. she could speak 68 words. >> apple, bubble, knock-knock. >> woof-woof. then october of 2002 it just -- the list ends. >> right. you know, i have heard her say mama. >> i know it's hard to imagine that >> i do hear her in my dreams. that's hurtful. >> i can imagine. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. as the words stopped, the hitting started. >> from age 4 to age 6 was really hard because we would take turns on who was going to hold and lay with her and make sure she is not going to punch her face and break her nose and break her eye sockets. watch what you're doing. that's right. and the developmental pediatricians say, it's autism. >> that was around age 4. what was that like to hear? >> oh, terrifying. i knew nothing about it. >> but christie would quickly learn there is no cure. there are no definitive treatments especially for someone who had such severe autism as kara. completely nonverbal. one night she repeatedly hit herself for 12 hours nonstop. >> at that point it was like, we need to go a different direction, you know, so that is when the antipsychotics, when they started, right after that. >> kara started taking a cocktail of medications called psycho troepices. they are very powerful drugs often used for adults and adolescents with psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. >> they did something. they just changed it from a constant to an every 15 minute kind of thing. >> definitely an improvement but with a tremendous cost. mark says the drugs left kara unable to do anything, not present or aware of her surroundings. the little girl they had longed for, that little toddler full of words and smiles, was lost to them. >> it's permanent grief. >> yes. >> she was robbed of a life. >> a life her parents would give anything to get back even if it meant breaking the law. that, when we come back. it's the last minute gift sale. get up to 40% off storewide. 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unimaginable. but they were lucky. they lived in rhode island, where cannabis was legal. >> he was probably the youngest person in the nation to have a cannabis license. >> with that license in hand, marie was able to access cannabis from a grower in rhode island. but she was still nervous. there was no road map for a strain or particular dosage. >> i am a big guidelines person, so not having a protocol was probably the most difficult part for me, because what am i doing? >> what marie decided to do, make herself the guinea pig. she would try devin strains and doses first. if she felt okay, she would give them to her son. >> this is my writer diary. >> in fact, she shared a journal entry from one of those early days >> i feel an abject joy and jay can feel it, too. so how weird, how random? here we had jason had zero aggression. >> that is not something you had written probably for a long time if ever. >> no. >> it was jay's story that inspired many others to also try cannabis. >> okay. all right. >> looks like he's ready. >> including the zartlers. >> all right, girl. >> it was on a car ride like this when the zartlers' first tried marijuana. rides that before cannabis they never even dreamed of taking because this would happen. >> one day in june of 2009 they had no choice. kara had an important doctor's appointment five hours away in galveston, texas. they decided to try the marijuana brownies their neighbor had made >> i just gave it to her and she ate it. it was about an hour where she was sitting, no longer rocking, no longer hand flapping, no longer hitting. she is sitting there and looking out the window and she is looking at me and smiling. it was like a miracle. >> i got to see it up close when i went on a drive with them after kara had a dose of cannabis. >> we would never be able to do this. >> an easier life for everybody. >> yes. >> an easier life but one that would ultimately put their whole family in jeopardy. that story is later. but first, why would it work? how would it work? unraveling the science of cannabis and autism. i am what i live my way the new eau de parfum intense giorgio armani in a recent clinical study, patients using salonpas patch reported reductions in pain severity, using less or a lot less oral pain medicines. and improved quality of life. ask your doctor about salonpas. it's good medicine. bye mom. my helpers abound, i'll need you today. our sleigh is now ready, let's get on our way. a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes. must be carried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and having their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service. ok, let's talk about those changes to your financial plan. bill, mary? hey... it's our former broker carl. carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant. hm... i know how difficult these calls can be. not with schwab. nina made it easier to set up our financial plan. we can check in on it anytime. it changes when our goals change. planning can't be that easy. actually, it can be, carl. look forward to planning with schwab. schwab! ♪ hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season. in jerusalem in a modest apartment lives a larger than life presence in the cannabis world. our visit while not in person because of covid is a virtual reunion with 91-year-old dr. rafael meshulim. how are you? >> fine. quite a time since you have been here. >> i met him when we first started on this journey and he is one of the scientists who changed my mind about cannabis as a medicine. his pioneering research in the 1960s has him poised to win the nobel prize. so the minute i heard about parents using cannabis to treat their kids with autism, i had to get his thoughts. can you give me some idea of how it even came to be that we would think about cannabis to treat autism? >> cannabis works on autism. i strongly believe on the basis of what we have seen in animal models and people that use a cannabis and the effects are definitely positive there should be clinical trials. we should look at the doses. this is one of the fields that are very, very promising. >> across town in jerusalem another pioneer in cannabis research is doing those exact clinical trials the doctor is talking about. you led the world's first clinical trial looking at cannabis and autism. what did you find? >> the first study was an open label study. we knew there would be some placebo effect. we were surprised that most parents reported it substantially helped their children not only for the behavior but deficits. >> doctors were california were paying attention to this. intrigued by the findings of this early research. >> quite a bit of data out of israel. there is some evidence of, that cbd may be helpful. >> so grant and dr. doris trauner launched their own study with cbd and autism here at the center for additional cannabis research in san diego. tell me about the study design. >> it is what is called a double blind placebo controlled cross over study. each child gets a placebo at one point and cbd at one point but nobody knows when they are getting it. i was actually watching the news and they had a segment on it that they were looking for participants. ezra had begun to get a little more physical and aggressive. at one point i had a lot of bruises on me because he was getting more violent. . joann's son ezra was diagnosed with autism when he was 22 month old. >> i've heard people compare it to like losing a child. you lose the idea of the child you were going to have, the life you were going to have. >> joann tried everything she could think of to try and help her son. >> we tried gluten free, dairy free. we've tried home yo pathic remedies. >> had you considered other meds before this, like psychotropic medications? >> i didn't want to try those because there were so many side effects. you ready? straight or circle? >> for joann, when it came to concerns about side effects, cannabis was different. >> keep going. okay. i saw how much it could help other people and i thought, it's all natural. there may not be real side effects with it. why not try it? >> so joann moved forward enrolling ezra in the clinical trial. he was 9 then. what am i going to do in the future if i am already having a hard time with his aggression now? >> it was that same question maribel gonzalez was struggling with when she enrolled her son carlos in a similar trial in new york. a double blind study with cbdv which is similar to cbd. i met the lead researcher along with maribel and carlos when the study first launched in 2019. how optimistic are you that this is going to work? >> 50/50. >> how much potential do you think is here for cbd to treat autism? >> the big advantage is it may have less side effects than some of the other medicines used to treat severe, disruptive behavior. >> in a sign of how quickly things have change when this trial began two years ago cbdv even though it is the nonpsycho part of the plant was still considered a schedule 1 drug and had to be locked in the safe. >> just going to squirt it on the side of your mouth okay? >> when you talk about the ups and downs how low has it gone? >> pretty low. low enough that he attacked me but me going through -- knowing what he is going through sometimes i have to think for him and myself. >> somebody said there is something that could help treat autism, how would it help you? >> probably i don't have to worry about getting angry over a certain schedule being broken. i'd be pretty happy about that. >> often times what parents are worried about is the headline is my kid is taking a cannabis drug and some people are going to say i can't believe you did that. >> i will be like i'm doing, trying to find something to help my child because at the end of the day that is my child and i'm thinking for the future for him. >> that is what we heard again and again. maribel and carlos. >> oh, you look so nice. >> marie and jay. >> there we go. >> the zartlers and kara. >> i remember them being desperate and in need of some help and really needing some balance for kara and for their own lives. >> remember, none of this comes easy. the zartlers' story takes a frightening turn when we come back. she's worked in retail during the holidays. as a barista during rush hour. and a nanny to a couple of rambunctious kids. now, all that experience has led her to a job that feels like home. with home instead, you too can become a caregiver to older adults, with a career that makes a difference. ♪ apply today. ♪ it's the last minute gift sale. get up to 40% off storewide. 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okay. let's mel low out. >> there you go. >> she starts to settle down. at one point, even clapping. >> she is like, thank you, sir. >> seeming to thank them, for the medicine she has received. and take a look. it seems to help her focus a bit. and take the edge off. >> it's wonderful. she is aware now and she has the skills to assist and do more. it's phenomenal. i keep thinking i'm going to hear her talk. i'm still having dreams that she is going to speak to me >> i am really struck by -- she is clearly not harming herself, hitting herself. >> she is happy. >> she is happy. she took to it real quick in the sense that, well, i feel better. >> he want to be clear. it doesn't end all of her symptoms. but it helps. and christy believes they could have even better results if they had more options. >> i would like to have the ability to go back and forth and try multiple strength to see what would work best for her. we are just -- >> not in the position. because of the law. >> right. >> so for now their source is under ground. a grower they met years ago when kara was a young child. >> i remember them being desperate and in need of some help. >> we found kara's secret supplier, who was willing to meet with us as long as we disguised their identity and did not reveal the location. >> we started testing together very conservatively and documenting the strains and how they worked for kara and looking at the ones best for her. >> how did you start to put the puzzle pieces together for something totally new like this? >> really there are a lot of groups and forums on the internet where autism parents that use cannabis as medicine talk about strains and specific ones. >> so this cabinet of wonders is this is jason's earlier card. >> marie is one of the parent pioneers who has been posting and sharing what has worked for jay over the years. as one of the youngest people with a legal medical marijuana card, marie and jay were able to try all sorts of different doses and strains and documented it all. >> he is getting a ton of cannabis. two cookies. three cookies. >> but there was another problem. you see, once they found something that finally worked, they would then worry that the supply would not be consistent and available. after all, this is not the sort of prescription you can simply go to the pharmacy and refill. it is a plant dependent on ethical growers and mother nature. >> there were many times crops got destroyed or growers simply disappeared. that is a scary proposition if you are a parent whose child is now dependent on cannabis to make his life more livable. >> when the grower's plants died because he had a mite infestation it became a tragedy. everything started happening again. the whole injurious, like, we just saw so completely how it was helping him. >> if this all sounds audacious, overwhelming even, it is. just because it worked for jay does not mean it would necessarily work for another child no matter how similar they are. there is not yet the data. there aren't the studies as of now. there isn't the confidence to run forward. >> it is not a good idea to run out and buy it and try to use it on your own. it is not clear what dose is the best dress if it does work and also whether what you are buying really has what, the dose you think it does because it is unregulated. the final thing is you don't know what else is in that bottle. there could be pesticides or other toxins we just don't know about. >> and so the story repeats itself. parents left with new even well founded hope but little direction when it comes to cannabis and their children. marie made the tough decision to go public while the zartlers kept their secret for years. that is about to change. did anybody say don't do this? 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>> yes. >> who? >> everyone. >> everyone. family members? >> yes. they all did. friends. >> because they were worried about the reaction. >> consequences, right. it was all about, well, you'll end up in jail over this. >> that's when they decide to have christy film kara having a violent fit. and mark giving her cannabis. mark posted the video on facebook. it goes viral. the story makes local and national news. >> on the front page on the sunday paper. >> people take notice. >> somebody in our richardson town saw it on the local news and called 911. >> and so does child protective services. >> it didn't take long. cps, knock, knock, knock. she says, i need to talk to my supervisor. we've established a cps case with you and you'll be hearing from us again. >> the zartlers hire audrey moorhead as their attorney. >> i often say that there are two agencies that you do not want to knock on your door. the first is the fbi. the second, cps. cps can file a petition for termination of parental rights. i describe that as the death penalty of family law. >> having a good day? >> moorhead's primary goal is to keep kara at home with her parents. >> a wonderful day. >> my strategy was to impress upon cps that, one, there was no imminent danger. >> i know you're happy. >> removing kara from the home would more than likely have ended up in her being placed in a facility. >> the zartlers had been given a choice. let kara continue to hurt herself or give her the medicine that works and risk her being taken away. >> that was the choice. and it had to be a very painful choice. and a difficult choice. this was not a decision that the zartlers took lightly. >> there you go. i was prepared to go to court over whatever they did. >> it is a story we've heard before. families willing to risk everything to help the child. a story this doctor also knows. she is an e.r. physician who believes in cannabis as a medicine but also understands the gulf between stigma and science and is working to bridge the gap. >> the system was not taught in medical schools and schools for health care professionals. it is the system that provides the body homeostasis and could be the key behind why a lot of our disease processes are resistant to allow us to heal completely. what would you like to use medical marijuana for? >> for pain and appetite. >> she helps patients who qualify for medical cannabis in texas. she is working with a lobbying organization that is targeting lawmakers. >> as the cannabis industry continues to grow it runs the risk of leaving patients behind. organizations like texans for safe access maintain the focus that patients should be the center. >> you are a conservative >> i am a conservative. i am republican. >> this is often seen as an issue conservatives don't really get behind. >> that is true but i'm also a data driven person because of my health care background. >> she may seem like an unlikely candidate but she has been leading the case in texas. >> it has shown remarkable promise. >> a former use she helped spearhead the compassionate use act in 2018 allowing patients with intractable epilepsy to use cbd as medicine. >> it is very difficult for family to live life normally when you've got a child that is having a hundred seizures a day. >> how hard was it to get that bill passed in 2015? >> it was very difficult. we were not sure that we were going to get a hearing on it. >> four years later she helped expand the program to include qualifying conditions like multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer and, yes, autism. it was a big step forward but the thc limits were too low to help families like the zartlers. >> if they came to you and told you this is our situation what would you say? >> i would warn them what the ramifications are in the law and as a mother myself i would move heaven and earth to make something better for my child if they were suffering. >> this session click is pushing to add more health conditions and also raise the thc level from 0.5 to 5%. it is a bill the zartlers are watching very closely because it would allow them to legally give the higher thc dose to kara. >> every day that i give the medicine to my daughter is a potential day of, for me, ending up with a felony. >> the fight to keep their daughter when we come back. this is how we shine. 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(cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 >> all members voting. >> april, 2021. austin, texas. 200 miles away from the zartlers' home in dallas, mark arrives at the state capitol with great hope. the legislature which meets every two years is voting on a new bill which would enhance legal access to medical cannabis specifically increasing the limit for thc from 0.5% to 5%. ten times stronger. it is potentially life saving for the zartlers. remember, it is the higher thc strain that seems to be the most beneficial for kara. >> there we go. >> while child protective services did allow mark and kri kristie to maintain custody, they still feel like they are taking a risk every time they medicate their daughter. >> your luck runs out eventually and we'll get in trouble unless we get the law changed. >> that part greatly concerns me because these are parents that love their child and are taking great sacrifices to protect her, keep her safe, and address her needs. >> that is what representative click's bill does. >> i call her the queen of cannabis. >> mark watches from the house gallery. >> instead of the impassioned debate on the floor he expected, the bill simply passes. by an overwhelming bipartisan majority. 134-12. >> house vote 1535 is passed. >> almost done. ready sf one more. >> the bill does still have to go to the senate. >> there you go. good work. >> mark worries it won't receive the same support there. >> we need more and more research. >> this is it. >> after decades of being ignored and stigmatized there is increasingly more research in the united states as well. >> he'll start off with 130 mg. >> there is the study in new york we first started following in 2019. it is slowly coming to fruition. in fact, we first met carlos and his mom maribel two years ago. >> during that trial he became more friendly. >> i was more calm with me on the medication. overall it definitely did have a nice, positive effect on me. >> do you think of yourself as a cannabis researcher? >> there are also the labs at the center for medicinal cannabis research in california we showed you earlier. >> ready? >> answers from there are also slowly arriving. >> we are seeing pretty impressive changes. >> when you say seeing impressive changes, what do you mean? >> children whose aggressive behavior was daily and has gone away. i mean, gone away. a lot of the kids are more social. >> what have we got? >> a banana kiss. >> what is the purple one? >> he is easier to redirect. i can work. i can suggest hey can we do this or this? he'll go okay. yes mom. or okey-dokey. >> ezra is more patient, not hitting. not excitable. >> we have to share. okay? >> able to attend school. >> ezra, what are you making now? >> come here. >> and at home he is doing things joann never dreamed possible. like cooking. and singing. what is going through your mind at this point? >> i'm getting my baby back, i'm getting my boy back. we can set up the dinosaurs. >> you know, as we were talking there was something still nagging at me. >> do you ever think your expectations are influencing how you think he is doing? >> yes and no. i don't know how he started changing. i don't know how he started communicating. i don't know how he started being reasonable, he stopped being aggressive. >> he eats plants. >> should i put her in the plants then? >> changes that have continued long after ezra stopped taking the study drugs almost a year ago. >> he has had no regression whatsoever. i don't think it is a cure. i think it is just going to make it easier for him. you know? easier for him to live. >> interestingly these were the same kind of long term changes jay also experienced >> i don't know if i'd use the word heal but helping him become more himself. he has a right to be healthy, to be happy, to feel joy. and this is certainly helping him do that. >> i want to be very clear again no one is saying this is a cure for autism. but the idea of cannabis might not just treat the symptoms of autism but also help repair, even protect the brain, is something that came up again and again with the scientists i spoke to >> i don't know. all i can tell you in terms of concrete things is that some of the kids who have shown an effect on whatever they are taking show it for several weeks after the study drug is taken away. some seemed to maintain some improvement but i don't know what that would be. i think it is certainly important to continue studying it until it does. >> until then it is still an uphill battle in texas. ultimately the thc part of representative click's bill doomed when it got to the senate. the levels only raised to 1%. >> my intent then and still is to have a truly medical program that follows the scientific data. people are concerned that this could lead into recreational abuse. >> the conservative lawmaker and grandmother to a boy with autism is not giving up. >> i am trying to move the ball a little further down the road. >> human beings are impatient. especially, understandably, when it comes to the care of our children. sometimes the roads are arduous and long. they take time. there is no end in sight. and yet the zartlers can still take immense joy that they can now travel the road at all. no longer afraid about what lies ahead. >> it is just a miracle. it is nothing short of a miracle for me. >> their story is out there now for the world to see. they are at peace with that. they once believed they would lose their child. and now revel with their belief every day that instead she was found with the help of a plant. >> the sun is setting. it's beautiful . xxxx . >> hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. appreciate your company. coming up here on cnn newsroom, just days before christmas and the new year, sobering warnings in the fight against the coronavirus. we have reporters out across the u.s. and abroad. plus, we'll examine how close the u.s. is to civil war. my guest says we're closer than you might think. we're live in chile where voters have chosen a young leftist to lead

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