Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Parents Face Charges For Treating Teen’s Seizures With Weed

A Georgia family is devastated after authorities placed their 15-year-old teenager in a group home following a tip from his therapist that his parents were using marijuana in an effort to control his seizures.

David Brill, whose parents Suzeanna and Matthew spent 6 days in jail following their arrest, allegedly suffers from almost constant seizures. According to the couple, marijuana kept their son seizure-free for 71 days–Twiggs County sheriff’s deputies knocked on their door and told them to stop, and when the couple obliged, Brill’s seizures returned only a few just hours later.

Suzeanna Brill told The New York Times, “Within 14 hours of complying we were rushing our son to the hospital. And it was one of the most horrific seizures I’ve ever seen.”

David was taken into custody by the state Department of Family and Children Services in April, following an order from a juvenile court judge. He has been separated from his service dog, and is only allowed to communicate with his parents through phone calls and short visits, 13WMAZ.com reported.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a bill in May that adds PTSD and intractable pain to a list of medical conditions that are eligible to be treated with cannabis oil. Late-stage cancer patients and those suffering from seizure disorders are also eligible to seek cannabis oil treatment, but state law still bans growing, buying or transporting actual marijuana.

Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum said on Thursday, “Marijuana is still illegal to possess or use in the state of Georgia. That includes allowing or giving it to children to ingest or smoke.”

But the Brills maintain that they were just doing what any parent would to save their son, and that they would do it again if it meant bettering his health. “Nothing else was working,” Suzeanna Brill told 13WMAZ. “I can’t have my kid dying because no one wants to listen.”

The Brills have started a GoFundMe page to help pay for a lawyer and to move to a state where marijuana is legal.