Here’s Why Patients Should Have Quicker Access To Medicinal Cannabis

On Monday, one of the first patients in Florida received a full-strength medical cannabis product. The patient is fifteen-year-old Juan Isaiah Cruz III. Due to his incurable brain tumor, he is eligible to use cannabis spray. Now, his family has hope that product can decrease the size of his tumor. Most of all, they see it as a major blessing, for Cruz and other patients. Be sure to hear about his story in the video below. 

Juan Isaiah Cruz III receives full-strength medical cannabis

During August of 2014, Juan Cruz, aka JuJu, was diagnosed with Stage 3 Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer.

Despite multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, and visits to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Tennesse, doctors moved him to hospice care.

Now, with a prognosis of less than one year to live, JuJu is eligible to receive a full-strength cannabis spray, delivered and produced by Surterra Therapeutics.

Jacqueline Cuevas, Cruz’s mother, says she has hope that the medicine will shrink not only his tumor but also ease his pain. Moreover, make him less dependent on drugs like Morphine.

Being that it took a lot of time to find a doctor to recommend the product to her son, Cuevas says “this has been a major blessing.”

Eventually, Cruz had his first visit with Dr. Joseph Rosado in Orange City. However, with a 90 day waiting period, it was unclear if he would even make it to delivery day. Therefore, Cruz took it upon himself to speak up on delivery day by inviting reporters into his home to hear of his hopes and struggles. According to Rosado,

This is the kind of case you never hope to have, but Juju is a fighter and he can be an example of why we should allow more patients to have quicker access.