Committee hears testimony about cannibidiol oil, moves to decide Monday
BOISE — Over two hours of testimony was heard before the Senate State Affairs committee Wednesday from Idaho citizens both for and against a bill to allow epilepsy patients to use cannibidiol oil to treat the disorder.
Bill sponsor Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, said the committee would reconvene Monday to discuss amendments to the bill before voting to move the bill to the Senate floor.
Curt McKenzie
“This is something I’ve been looking at for a couple of years after a mother of a child who suffers from Dravet’s Syndrome … came to the legislature to help treat this,” McKenzie said.
Ten-year-old Alexis Carey was diagnosed with Dravet’s Syndrome at age two. The disorder is characterized by frequent and lengthy seizures, according to Carey’s mom, Clare Carey. Dravet’s Syndrome may lead to developmental complications, such as difficulty walking, impaired speech and loss of bladder control. Additionally, seizures can lead to serious injury and death.
Clare said doctors typically prescribe Dravet’s Syndrome patients a cocktail of different medicines that can permanently damage the liver, kidneys and other organs, while also suggesting different dietary changes to reduce the frequency of seizures.
“In recent years, families I know in our small Dravet community have been able to access CBD (Cannabidiol) oil for their children,” Clare said. “Many children have had a positive response, some having reduced seizures and in some cases, seizure-free.”
CBD is an extract from hemp, a plant that also produces marijuana. While Idaho did pass a law in 2013 against the use of marijuana for medical and recreational use, McKenzie seeks to exempt CBD as a legal treatment for epilepsy patients, as long as the THC content is less than .3 percent.
Twelve states have legalized the use of CBD to treat epilepsy patients, while still restricting the use of medical marijuana. Of the 12, McKenzie said the most restrictive percentage of acceptable levels of THC in the oil is .3 percent in those states.
Boise physician William Martin opposed the bill during testimony, disapproving of CBD’s lack of FDA approval and the treatment having little quality control or dosing information.
“There is a system in medicine for evaluating drugs or chemicals as to whether it’s effective, what it proposes to do and to protect the public against unknown complications,” Martin said. “To approach this in a scientific fashion is really important.”
Martin said the FDA would soon carry out trials for Epidiolex at the end of the month, which is a liquefied form of CBD. However, Boise pediatric neurologist David Bettis, who said he has worked through the FDA approval process before, said he would “bet his house” CBD “would not be approved in less than three to five years, at the earliest.”
Bettis also said the drug saw positive outcomes in clinical and animal trials.
Opponents of the bill suggested three things that would persuade them to support it — that CBD patients need a physician’s recommendation to receive it, a patient registration program to be put in place and for the bill to clarify which disorders are acceptable to treat with CBD.
K-9 police dog trainer Randy Arthur said the legalizing CBD oil could have other unintended consequences during traffic stops, as drug-sniffing dogs cannot distinguish between CBD and marijuana.
Following testimony, President Pro Tempore Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said he challenged stakeholders to make it a “top priority” to come up with solutions to the problems opponents brought up against the bill, and said he does not want to wait until the next session to address the issue.
George Wood can be reached at [email protected]