Bellevue parents say medical marijuana could help their son with seizures

Shelley and Dominic Gillen are eight years in their struggle to legalize medical marijuana. They say the passion stems from their 18-year-old son, Will, fighting all his life. “He experiences several seizures a day, often hundreds of seizures a day. He’s very developmentally retarded, still in diapers, completely non-verbal, legally blind, ”Shelley said. The Guillens say medical marijuana could help improve their son’s quality of life, and several doctors agree: “We believe cannabis has the ability to calm his brain down, reduce the severity and hopefully the number of seizures “said Dominic. The Bellevue family was in Lincoln on Wednesday when Governor Peter Ricketts spoke about LB 474. “If you legalize marijuana and go through the regulatory process to keep people safe, it is dangerous and you will harm our children,” said Ricketts that cannabis will kill our children, especially if he had a child in front of him, the cannabis need to possibly save his life was incredible, is an insult, “said Dominic. LB 474 would legalize medical marijuana for patients with qualifying conditions. The patient could be prescribed 2.5 ounces at a time. The Gillens say that many Nebraskans support the idea and so should lawmakers: “The job of elected officials is to do the will of the people,” Dominic said. “They instead deny the will of the people and continue to deny the will of the people.”