I love my mommy and she loves me.
Mo Barnhart loves her daughter. "I had Dahlia five years ago, so she's five years old right now and was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was two. So I went from having this dancing, affectionate, happy, playing two year old baby girl to having this dying patient in a hospital bed over night, literally."
As a single mom, her life changed radically once Dahlia started on Chemotherapy.
We lived solely to save Dahlia's life.
"I had no idea that from the time of diagnosis on, that I would have literally no options.
The very first surgery that she underwent, they literally told me that if I didn't agree to that surgery, they would do it without my permission, that if I did not agree to the conventional treatment options they were going to give me, which consist of surgery,
chemotherapy, and radiation, the state would take custody of her and she would undergo those treatments without me."
"These medical professionals are not evil, their hands are tied. We have some really bad laws." Marijuana is Federally illegal and not considered to have any medical benefits which is why it is Schedule 1. This is why so little research is done in America.
According to the National Cancer Institute, Chemical components of Cannabis, called cannabinoids, activate specific receptors throughout the body to produce pharmacologic effects, particularly in the central nervous system and the immune system. Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years.
Dahlia was prescribed some really harsh and dangerous drugs. Most of the medications come with side effects like psychosis, homicide, suicide, death, and that's all we have to offer these children. Cannabis does not have any side effects.
"At some point the shock started to wear off. And a few months into treatment I realized
that my daughter was going to die unless I did something about it.
I looked up over the course of just a few months, thousands of supplements and alternative treatments. What I found time and time again was that cannabis was very efficient just for treating the symptoms and side effects of both the disease and its treatment."
Mo let her medical professionals know that she was having cannabis shipped into an illegal state, in Tennessee, where St. Jude is. They we were all onboard.
I started her on cannabis oil about six months into treatment.
The very first night that she took oil, she slept through the night for the first time in her entire life. She gained three pounds the first week she was on oil. "All of the science, for or against in the world doesn't even matter. You're witnessing it with your own eyes."
Mo was against drugs and against cannabis before Dahlia got sick.
"I'm just so ashamed to admit, but had this been on a ballot in front of me, I don't think I would have voted for it. I also never had somebody sit down in front of me and explain to me that this was medicine."
Mo is the co-founder of Florida's, CannaMoms, it is an organization that helps to raise awareness of and education about CBD and Cannabis.
"The fact that we have not a single cure for a single disease for illness that these children suffer from, that's all gonna be changed."
Mo points to her daughter, Dahlia's head and asks, "Was there something in here once?"
Dahlia looks at her mom and points to her head. "Yep, there was cancer in there."
Mo asks, "And then what happened?"
Dahlia smiles, "We killed the cancer. My mom never gives up on her kids. Mommy, thank you, mom!" They hug.
