The Story

Six years ago, I was on the brink of placing my then-11-year-old autistic child in a residential facility. His meltdowns had spun out of control to the point where he was physically hurting himself. Despite having resources, my son had been failed by the best treatments and therapies that our educational and medical institutions had to offer. 

Desperate for any solution, I had heard on the news that a new medical marijuana law had passed in Pennsylvania, and that autism was a qualifying condition. Unable to obtain this plant medicine through legal means for years due to regulatory red tape, I found myself our local high-school pot dealer’s basement. 

Within one hour of giving my child a grain-of-rice amount of cannabis concentrate under his tongue, his behavior completely changed and the happy child I previously knew emerged. The cannabis didn’t get him high or stoned, it helped his nervous system regulate itself so that he was able to function with the rest of the family, community, and within the school system. 

No parent or caregiver should have to face the devastating situation I was in with my son. As my son’s success story spread via word of mouth among the local autism community, parents started to track me down, sharing their children’s medical records and asking for advice on how to get and dose cannabis for their child. So in 2016, I founded Hope Grows for Autism as a way to organize local parents into a group so we could share information and learn from each other.

Word of mouth spread and it became apparent that a larger community forum was needed for education and discussion, so we launched the Hope Grows for Autism Facebook group. As I became more active as a grassroots leader in the community, I received an opportunity to facilitate a research study with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in order to give physicians much-needed data. 

My work as a grassroots leader highlighted to me both families’ desperation and society’s stigmatization - which is manifested as red tape - that made it impossible for medical cannabis to be accessible. Desperate to make a change, I used the Hope Grows for Autism platform to identify and start educating all of the stakeholders in the medicinal cannabis supply chain: families, educators, medical professionals, politicians, manufacturers, and dispensaries. 

To date, Hope Grows for Autism has gotten the word out through dozens of speaking events and media and press interviews. We have facilitated research studies and provided insights and education to all stakeholders - from families to doctors to dispensaries. We have assembled a global community to support families and caretakers of individuals living with autism across the globe. 

As we look to the future, Hope Grows for Autism is determined to continue its work until medicinal cannabis is a legal, destigmatized, and accessible front-line solution for symptoms and clusters of symptoms related to autism. From the perspective of families and caretakers, we work with the stakeholders along the supply chain to advocate for the change necessary to bring this treatment to their loved ones.