a cure illusive. now more than a dozen states have approved cannibas to treat autism autism, and for some, it's the jackpot. >> ready? >> time for drops. >> for others, it's a gamble. >> every day i give the medicine to my daughter is a potential day for me ending up with felony. >> it's like 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 six, marijuana and autism. you're about to see kara's life. i do want to warn you, this will be hard to watch. kara has severe autism. >> kara. stop. >> 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 christy. we met up at the home in texas. >> closed fisted punches to her face. hold her down, aggression and self-injurious behaviors are common especially in children with severe autism. >> for three decades dr. doris was the chief at the hospital. >> even some children who are higher functioning will have self-injurious behaviors or aggress ive behaviors. >> anything from repettively banging their head against a wall to hitting their head to pinching themselves. >> 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 awe stichl spectrum disorder is by definition a wide array of behaviors. mild or severe, the two core symptoms are social communication challenge, one third o nonverbal and second, restrictive or repetitive behaviors like rocking, flapping, even hitting. >> take a drirng snk. >> kara is aggressive, throwing things, breaking things, hitsing people. making life unimaginably challenging for kra and her parents. life has never been easy for kara. >> i did the blood test. they said you're pregnant. >> after years of battling infertility, christy 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. i had a stroke. >> it would be touch and go for 72 hours. doctors monitoring her and the baby's every move. five days after the stroke, christy's water broke. >> when they came out. they were so small. they were so tiny. >> baby a was off the ventilator in two weeks and had no complications from the premature birth. baby b, kara, would struggle from the very beginning. at ten hour old, she had a brain bleed. after months of round the clock care, kara came home diagnosed with cerebral palsy. they thought it would be her biggest challenge. by october 2002, kara was almost three and could speak 68 words. >> apple, bubble, knock knock. >> wolf, wolf. >> october 2002 it just stops. >> right. i've 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 sorry 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's not going to punch her face and break her nose and break her eye sockets. >> watch what you're doing. that's right. the developmental pediatrician say it's autism. >> that was around age 4. >> uh-huh s. >> what was that like to hear? >> terrifying. i knew nothing about it. christy would quickly learn there is no cure. there are no definitive treatments especially for someone with severe autism as kara. completely nonverbal. one night she repeatedly hit herself for 12 hours nonstop. >> at that point it's like we need to go a different direction. that's when the anti-psychotics started right after that. >> kara starting taking a cocktail of medications called psychotropics used for adult and a with disorders. >> it changed it to a constant to 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 world and smiles was lost to them. >> it's permanent grief. >> yeah. >> she was robbed of a life. >> a life her parents would do anything to get back. even if it meant breaking the law. that when we come back. [school bus passing by] [kids laughing] [bikes passing] [fire truck siren] [first responder] onstar, we see them. [onstar advisor] okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. [first responder] thank you, onstar. [driver] my son, is he okay? [first responder] your son's fine. [driver] thank you. there was something in the road... [first responder] it's okay. you're safe now. 2009, the suburbs of dallas. the powerful drugs that once helped severely autistic kara zartler were no longer working. >> the pharmacist said this is the highest dose i ever have seen a 45-pound person on, this is equivalent to a 2,000-pound horse. >> kara was in school at that time with 3,000 hits a day. >> you heard that right. she would hit herself 3,000 times in a seven-hour school day, and that's more than seven strikes every minute. the thing about a story like this -- >> when i eat something -- >> -- it defines you. one day the neighbor recommended cannabis, and not cbd, which now has become more commonly accepted as a medicine, but thc, the psychoactive part of the plant that gets you high or stoned, he said. he thought that thc might help calm kara. they were willing to try anything, but their home state of texas has the most restrictive cannabis laws. >> it's illegal. it has to be illegal for a reason. >> it took us a long time to get over the stigma. >> a stigma that this woman also understands all too well. >> when we first started nobody thought of using cannabis in a pediatric setting. >> an award-winning novelist wrote about giving her son cannabis, but only now was she willing to sit down to talk about it and introduce us to jason, who she calls jay. >> i think one of the biggest mischaracterizations that i got was, oh, you don't want to deal with your kid, you are drugging your kid. >> ironic. even hypocritical she said, because the medications that were prescribed for jay were stronger than cannabis. >> they were essentially, tranquilizers, they are kind of a chemical lobotomy. >> like the zartlers, marie tried all the conventional medicine to help her son, and none of it worked and it was brutal. >> as soon as he got up, he would start to scream, whale and as a person, he didn't want to be touched. he had a lot of aggressions. he would attack us all the time. >> the college professor and award-winning writer used her skills to search for answers. consistently her research kept leading her back to cannabis, but jay's neurologist was initially reluctant to even consider it. >> he was very worried that if he helped us get a license by prescribing it that if it ever got out that he was prescribing pot, that was going to look very bad for him. >> now remember, it was 2008, barely a dozen states legalized medicinal cannabis, federally it was still illegal, and the thought of giving it to a child, 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 a 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? >> so what marie decided to do, make herself the guinea pig. she would try different strains and doses first, and then if she felt okay she would give them to her son. >> this is my diary -- >> she shared a journal entry from one of the earlier days. >> i feel abject joy and jay can feel it, too. >> wow. >> how weird and random. and this is, jay has zero aggressions. >> and then jay's story inspired others to try cannabis, including the zartlers. it was on a car ride like this when the zartlers first tried marijuana, and rides before cannabis they never even dreamed of taking because this would happen. >> we're going home. >> but one day in june of 2009, they had no choice. kara had an important doctor's appointment five hours away in galveston, texas. christie and mark decided to try the marijuana brownies their neighborhood had made. >> i just gave it to her and she ate it. it was about an hour where she was sitting -- no longer rocking and no longer hand-flapping or hitting, and she's sitting there looking out the window and 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. >> this is 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. get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. zero-commission trades for online u.s. stocks and etfs. and a commitment to get you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year. that's decision tech. only from fidelity. what does it feel like to sell your car to carvana? it feels amazing. when you get a great offer in seconds... 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>> the first study was an open-label study, and we knew there would be some placebo affect, but we were surprised that most parents reported it substantially helped their children, not only for the disruptive behavior but also for the social deficits. >> doctors in california were paying attention to all of this, intrigued by the research. >> there is some evidence that cbd may be helpful. >> so grant and the doctor launched their own study here at the center for cannabis research here in san diego. >> it's called a double blind placebo controlled crossover study, and each child gets placebo at one point and cbd at one point and nobody knows when. >> they had a story on the news that they were looking for participants. at one point i had a lot of bruises on me because he was getting more violent. >> joann's son was diagnosed with autism when he was 22 months old. >> i heard it compared to losing a child, and you lose the idea of the lie you were going to have, and the life he was going to have. >> she tried everything they could think of to help her son. >> we tried homeopathic -- >> you have tried psychotropic medications? >> i didn't want to try any of those because there were so many side effects. >> but for joann, when it came to side effects, cannabis was different. >> i saw how much it could help other people, and i thought, i mean, it's all natural, and there may not be any real side effects with it, why not try it? >> so joann moved forward enrolling ezra in the clinical trial. >> what will i do if he continues to grow if i am already having trouble with the aggression now . >> carlos was enrolled in a similar trial at montefiore health system in new york. it was a double-blind placebo-controlled study with cbdv, which is similar to cbd. i met the lead researcher, dr. eric hollander, when the study first launched in 2019. >> how optimistic are you that this is going to work? >> 50/50. >> how much potential do you really think is here for cbdv to treat autism? >> i think the big advantages are it may have less side effects than other medicines that are used to treat severe disruptive behavior. >> in a sign of how quickly things changed, when this trial began two years ago, cbdv was still considered a schedule one drug and had to be locked in this safe. >> ready carlos? >> squirt it on the side of your mouth, okay? >> when you talk about the ups and downs, i mean, how low has it gone? >> pretty low. low enough that he attacked me, but what he's going through, sometimes i have to think for him and myself. >> somebody said there's something that could help treat autism. how would it help you? >> probably i don't have to worry about getting angry, and i would be pretty happy about that. >> often time the headline is my kid is taking a cannabis drug, and some people would say, i can't believe you did that? >> i would be, i am trying to find something that will help my child because at the end of the day, that's my child and i am thinking for the future, for him. >> that's what we heard again and again. maribel and carlos -- >> these 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. ♪ you are my fire ♪ ♪ the one desire ♪ ♪ you are, you are, ♪ ♪ don't wanna hear you say... ♪ ♪ ♪ i want it that way ♪ we've been waiting all year to come together. ♪ happy holidays from lexus. get $1500 lease cash toward a 2022 rx 350. ♪ to run a growing business, is to be on a journey. and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises. ♪ but wherever you are on your journey. your dell technologies advisor is here for you - with the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. the search for cannabis in texas is challenging for the zartlers. dispensaries here are not allowed to produce a product potent enough in thc to help people like kara, to stop her from punching herself. today it's busy and she needs cannabis to help her slow down and focus. mark gets her medication ready. >> i put a quarter teaspoon in. >> he starts filling up what he calls kara's marijuana machine. it's a vapor. it heats up the cannabis flower turning it into a vapor which kara can inhale. it's the fastest way to get it into her system, they tell me. >> wait. >> kara is eager. look at her. she seems to know what is coming. >> ready? okay, let's mellow out. >> there you go. >> she starts to settle down, at one point even clapping. >> it's like, thank you, sir. >> kara, seeming to thank them for the medicine she has received. take a look. it seems to help her focus a bit and take the edge off. >> it's wonderful. she's aware now and she has the skills to assist and do more. it's phenomenal. i keep thinking i will hear her talk. i am having dreams she will speak to me. >> she's clearly not harming herself, hitting herself. >> she's happy. >> she took to it real quick in the sense that she's like, i feel better. >> i want to be clear, it doesn't end all of her symptoms, but it helps. christie believes they could have better results if they had more options. >> i would like to have the ability to go back and forth and try multiple strengths to see what would work best for her. we're just -- >> not in a position to do that. >> because of the law? >> because of the law, yeah. >> for now, their source is underground. 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 disguise their identity and did not reveal the location. >> we just started testing together very conservatively, and documenting the strains and how they worked for kara, and looking at the ones that were best for her. >> how did you start to put the puzzle pieces together for something that was totally new like this? >> there's a lot of groups and forums on the internet where autism parents use cannabis as medicine. >> this is jason's earlier card where -- >> marie is one of those 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 medicare marijuana card, marie and jay were able to try all sorts of strains and document it all. >> he has been given a ton of cannabis. one cookies, two cookies. >> but there was a problem, because once they found something that works they worried it would not be supplied. this is a plant dependant on ethical growers and mother nature. there were many times crops got destroyed or growers simply disappeared. that's a scary proposition if you are a parent whose child is now dependent on cannabis to make his life more liveable. >> when the grower's plants died because of the insect infestation, 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's not yet the data. there aren't the studies as of now. there isn't the confidence to plunge forward. >> it's not a good idea to run out and buy it and just try to use it on your own. it's not clear what dose is the best dose if it does work. also whether what you are buying really has the dose you think it does, because it's unregulated. and then the final thing is that you don't know what else is in that bottle. there could be pesticides, there could be other toxins that 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, but that's about to change. by the way, did anybody say don't do this? the shocking turn in this story, when we come back. johnson & johnson is the world's largest healthcare company. building a future where cancers can be cured. strokes can be reversed. joints can be 3-d printed. and there isn't one definition of what well feels like. there are millions. we're using our world to make your world a world of well. are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! what you are watching in real time is what happens when kara zartlers needs to be rescued by cannabis. it's hard to watch but the zartlers want to you see this. the repetitive hitting associated with her autism seems to vanish. >> be calm. >> her mind and body slowly seem to relax and calm, something no other medicine could do for her. >> i did not tell her physicians until she was 14. i took her medicated to her neurologist and he sad there in awe and said i'm not going to chart this. this won't go in her chart, but i think if you have this positive of a result you need to continue with this medicine for her. >> a medicine that keeps kara from hurting herself, but is also illegal in texas. >> there was a guilty feeling that i had that was associated, and there was also a fear of consequences. >> when kara turned 17 the zartlers decide they don't want to keep their secret anymore. they believe the only way to create change is to share her story. did anybody say don't do this? >> yes. >> who? >> everyone. >> everyone. family members? >> yeah, they all did. friends. >> because they were worried about the reaction -- >> consequences. it was, well, you will end up in jail over this. >> that's when they decided to have christie film kara throwing a fit, and mark giving her the cannabis and they post it on facebook and it goes viral. the story makes local and national news. >> on the front page of the sunday paper. >> and people take notice. >> somebody in our town saw it on the local news and called 911. >> and so does child protective services. >> didn't take long, cps, knock, knock, knock, and she said i need to talk to my supervisor. we established a cps case with you and you will hear from us again. >> ms. moorhead is there attorney. two agencies you do not want to knock on your door. the first is the fbi. the second is cps. cps can petition for termination of parental rights, and what i describe that as is the death penalty of family law. >> having a good day? >> moorehead's primary goal is to keep kara at home with her parents. >> my strategy was to impress upon cps is, one, there was no imminent danger, and two, removing kara from the home would more than likely put kara in a facility. >> two choices were to let her harm herself or -- give her the medicine that works and continue to be taken away. >> this was not a decision that the zartlers took lightly. >> there you go. i was prepared to go to court over whatever at the did. >> it's a story we've heard before, families willing to risk everything to help their child. a story one doctor also knows, and he's an er physician who believes in cannabis as a medicine and understands the gap between cannabis and science and is willing to bridge that gap. >> it was not caught in medical. it's the system that provides 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 -- >> she helps patients who qualify for medical cannabis in texas, and she's working with a lobbying organization that is targeting lawmakers. >> as the cannabis industry continues to grow it runs the risk of leaving patients behind, so they could maintain the focus that patients should be the center. >> you are a conservative? >> i am a conservative, a republican. >> this often seems like an issue conservatives don't often get behind. >> that is true, but i am also a data driven person because of my health care background. >> she may seem like an unlikely champion for cannabis. she allowed patients with uncontrollable epilepsy to use cbd as a medicine. >> it's difficult for a family to live life normally when you have a child have 100 seizures a day. >> how hard was it to get that bill passed in 2015? >> it was very difficult. we were not sure we were going to get a hearing on it. >> four years later she helped to expand the law on it, to help terminal cancer and, yes, autism. it was a big step forward but the thc limits was too low to help families like the zartlers. >> what would you say to them? >> 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 she's pushing to add more health conditions and raise the thc level from .5 to 5%. it's a bill the zartlers are watching very closely, because it would allow them to legally give that higher thc dose to kara. >> every day that i give the medicine to my daughter is a potential day for me ending up with a felony. >> the fight to keep their daughter, when we come back. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models. ♪ christmas music ♪ ♪ ♪ if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, what?! no! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating the eyes and may provide temporary relief. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid eye drop specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you are allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. ♪ this holiday, ask your doctor about xiidra. umph! motrin works fast to stop pain where it starts. like those nagging headaches. uncomfortable period pains. and disruptive muscle aches. you can count on fast, effective relief with motrin. april 2021. austin, texas. 200 miles away from the 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 .5% to 5%. ten times stronger. it's it's potentially life changing. remember, it's that higher thc strain that seems to be the most beneficial for cara. while child protective services did allow mark and christy to maintain custody of cara, despite their very public admission of using the illegal thc for her autism, they still feel like they're taking a risk every time they medicate their daughter. >> your luck runs out, eventually, and we are going to get in trouble unless we can get the law changed. >> that part greatly concerns me. because these are parents that love their child. you know, taking great sacrifices to protect her, keep her safe, and address her needs. >> reporter: and that's what representative clicks bill does. >> i call her the queen of cannabis. >> others in favor, say yea. >> instead of the impassioned debate on the floor that he expected, the bill simply passes by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 134-12. >> house bill 1535 is passed. >> reporter: the bill does still have to go to the senate. and mark worries it won't receive the same support there. >> we need more and more research. >> so this is it. >> reporter: but after decades of being ignored, stigmatized, there is increasingly more research in the united states, as well. >> this is going to start off with 130 milligrams. >> 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 his mom two years ago. >> during that trial, he became more friendlier. >> i was more calm with it on. like, with me on the medication. and overall, it definitely did have a nice positive effect on me. >> do you think of yourself as a cannabis researcher? >> tap, tap, tap. >> reporter: there are also the labs at the center for medicinal cannabis research in california we showed you earlier. answers from there are also slowly arriving. >> we are seeing some pretty impressive changes. >> reporter: when you say seeing some impressive changes, what do you mean? >> children, whose aggressive behavior was daily and it's gone away. i mean, gone away. uh, a lot of the kids are more social. >> reporter: so what have we got? what is the purple one? >> he is easier to redirect. i can work -- i can kind of, like, suggest, hey, can we do this or do this? and he will go okay, or yes mom or okey-dokey. >> ezra is more patient, not hitting, not excitable. able to attend school. >> ezra, what are you making now? >> reporter: and at home, he is doing things joanne never dreamed possible. like, cooking and singing. so, what -- what is -- what has gone through your mind at this point? >> i am getting my baby back. i am getting my boy back. >> reporter: but, you know, as we were talking, there was something still nagging at me. do you ever think that 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 to be reasonable, how he stopped being aggressive. >> reporter: 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's -- it's a cure. i think it's just going to make him -- make it easier for him. you know? easier for him to live. >> reporter: interestingly, these were the same kind of long-term changes jay also experienced. >> i don't know if i would use the word heal but it's more like helping him become more himself. like, he has a right to be healthy, to be happy, to feel joy. and this is certainly helped him do that and that's all i can ask for. >> reporter: i want to be very clear, again. no one is saying there is a cure for autism. there isn't, either. but the idea that 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. um, and some seem to maintain some improvement but i don't know why that would be. i think it's certainly important to continue studying it to try to figure out how it works if it does. >> reporter: until then, it's 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 tip is still to have a truly medical program that follows the scientific data. people are concerned that this could lead into recreational abuse. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: human beings are impatient. especially, understandably, when it comes to the care of our children. but sometimes, the roads are arduous and long, they take time, and 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's just a miracle. it's just nothing short of a miracle for me. >> reporter: their story is out there now for the world to see. >> i know you are having fun. >> reporter: and 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. jerusalem is the universal city. the chosen city. the holy city. that's its blessing but it also gives it its danger and its ugliness, too. because it means that people believe that they must possess it absolutely.