An Australian father is now facing jail time for giving cannabis oil to his daughter who suffers from cancer.
Rumer Rose is the two-year-old daughter of Adam Koessler, and she was recently given the diagnosis of stage-four neuroblastoma.
She is undergoing standard chemotherapy treatments, but her father has also been supplementing the chemo with regular doses of CBD oil, which has so far produced “amazing” results.
In spite of the positive experience they have had with the CBD treatments, medical cannabis is still illegal in Australia.
Koessler was arrested on Jan. 2 for giving the CBD to his sick daughter, he did get released on bail but now is facing charges for possessing dangerous drugs and for giving them to a minor.
He will be back to court soon to face these charges.
The story has angered thousands of people around the world, and many have signed online petitions as well as raising money to support the single father.
A change.org petition to drop Koessler’s charges and legalize medical cannabis has reached almost 114,000 supporters.
“He is a father doing whatever possible to save his child… let him go,” says one of those supporters.
Another supporter writes “If the law states that this man cannot give his terminally ill.. daughter something that improves her quality of life, then the law needs to be changed. The fact that this man has had his parental rights taken away by an ignorant legal system that has absolutely no right to do so absolutely disgusts me.”
Rumer was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma, a form of pediatric cancer developing from immature nerve cells, on Christmas Eve.
The doctors began a 12-month treatment of chemotherapy but Rumer’s separated parents supplemented this with holistic medicine, a gluten-free diet, and medical grade CBD oil, which many people have been using to help treat anything from cancer, to epilepsy, to ulcers.
Giving CBD oil to children is a controversial issue, but Koessler claims that the oil is working wonders.
“The results were amazing. What we saw when Rumer was given the medical cannabis oil was nothing short of miraculous. Her cancer ridden body was alive again – Rumer had almost instant quality of life… her skin color came back, her eyes were sparkling again… we were certain after seeing these results that her recovery was entirely possible.”
Koessler was not allowed to see his daughter initially after his arrest as it was a condition of his bail, but that was changed soon after.
Local Brisbane supporters are planning a protest in Febuary, and so far various crowdfunding efforts have brought in $19,000 for Koessler’s legal fees and for Rumer’s medical treatments.
While medical cannabis is currently illegal in Australia, the Victoria state leader, Daniel Andrews, stated that he wanted medical marijuana legal by the end of this year.