Parents, patients make final push for Nebraskans to support medical cannabis

OMAHA — For more than a decade, parents and patients have advocated for access to legal medical cannabis for suffering Nebraskans, including Shelley and Dominic Gillen, who want the option for their son, Will.

The Gillens say that regulated cannabis doesn’t kill but that what does kill is seizures. They said their son suffers from multiple types of seizures daily because of a rare disorder that makes treatments extremely difficult. Dominic Gillen said his son’s most recent change in medications resulted in a two-week hospital stay and the “very real fear that he was going to die.”

“Seizures have forced us to call 911, have landed him in the ER and have had him admitted for hospital stays countless times,” Shelley Gillen said at a public hearing related to two medical cannabis measures that appear on the Nebraska ballot this fall. “Seizures have traumatized our entire family.”

It has been more than 10 years of advocacy, including a stalled legislative bill in the early 2010s nicknamed “Will’s Law” from former State Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue. In that time, the Gillens said, Will Gillen has had many black eyes, head staples, stitches, concussions, knocked out teeth, a broken nose, a broken jaw and an almost fatal liver laceration.





https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/10/28/parents-patients-make-final-push-for-nebraskans-to-support-medical-cannabis/