A New Jersey family who has pushed for changes to the state’s medical marijuana law to help treat their young daughter suffering from severe seizures has been gifted $10,000 to help them relocate to Colorado to receive better care for her. The Wilson family has worked to get medical cannabis for their daughter Vivian, who suffers from Dravet syndrome, which makes her have multiple life threatening seizures every day.
The Christmas donation came from Magical Butter’s CEO Garyn Angel and two of his friends, Lisa and Drew Braun. Magical Butter is a Washington-based company that manufactures a machine to make cannabis-infused butters and oils.
Angel said he learned about the family’s situation on the web, donated his extraction machine, and decided to visit about three weeks ago. “They are trying to do everything on their own, but we wanted to help,” said Angel, whose friends from Tampa, Lisa and Drew Braun, contributed to the Wilsons despite having never met them.
“The contribution will relieve a lot of the financial stress this move was going to place on us,” said Brian Wilson. “Christie’s policies are forcing us to flee the state and become medical refugees at a great personal expense. Through their great generosity, MagicalButter and the Braun family are relieving us of most of the financial hardship that comes with a forced move.”
The Wilson family has continually pushed for acceptance of their daughter into New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, but still has not been able to access medicine to help control her seizures. Brian Wilson confronted Governor Chris Christie at a campaign stop asking him not to let his daughter die. Shortly thereafter, Christie signed a law that allowed growers to manufacture marijuana-infused edibles for children and expand the number of strains that can be grown. However, the Governor has refused to make any more expansions to the state’s medical marijuana program, including approving a pending bill that would allow New Jersey medical marijuana patients to obtain different types of marijuana from other states.