[Malveaux:] California, one of a handful of states that permit the use of medical marijuana. And one father sees it really as a life-saving remedy. Kyung Lah has the story.
[Kyung Lah, Cnn Correspondent:] The video is hard to watch, 6-year-old Jayden in an epileptic seizure. [on camera]: When you hold your son and he is screaming like that, what is that like?
[Jason David, Father Of Jayden:] I would say hell. There's nothing you can do to make him feel better.
[Lah:] But there is something. Jason David administers an unorthodox drug for his son's catastrophic epilepsy, a disease that can be fatal for children. [on camera]: It stopped the seizure?
[David:] Stopped the seizure, and he is in pain and suffering.
[Lah:] Calms him down?
[David:] Yes
[Lah:] It stops the seizure.
[David:] Stops the seizure. He's in pain and suffering, we have to do whatever it takes to save their life.
[Lah:] Pharmaceutical drugs have failed the Modesto, California, family.
[David:] Lafinamine, Fenomax, Clobazane. He couldn't chew. He couldn't walk. He couldn't take a bath. Open.
[Lah:] After a year of taking a liquid form of medical marijuana that doesn't get you high
[David:] I love you.
[Jayden David, Takes Medical Marijuana:] Yes, Jayden.
[Lah:] he is playing, running, and climbing. Jayden is eating solid food. From 22 pills a day to a day to treat his epilepsy, down to a pill and a half. 44 ambulance trips before starting on legal medical marijuana. It's now zero trips in the ambulance.
[David:] Medical marijuana should be called miracle marijuana.
[Lah:] Jayden is not the only one. There's no solid national statistics of how many children are using medical marijuana but where in the states where it's legal, from Oregon to Colorado, states report dozens of registered users under the age of 18, some as young as 2. And this is your vault?
[Steve Deangelo, Executive Director, Harborside Health Center:] This is our vault.
[Lah:] A vault full of various types of medicinal marijuana. At Harborside Health Center in Oakland, technicians sort, analyze and distill the plant. It's science here. And they believe it will help children with severe autism, epilepsy, ADHD and cancer.
[Deangelo:] We have seen more than one child like Jayden who came to us with very, very serious, severe life threatening illnesses who, as soon as they started using cannabis medicine, saw a dramatic turnaround.
[Lah:] The medical community says, without better research, which requires federal support, most doctors oppose medical marijuana for children.
[Dr. Seth Ammerman, Pediatrician:] All medications may have side effects, may have long-term consequences and unfortunately we know very little about this.
[David:] The parent is flying by the seat of their pants in doing this. You are the world to me
[Lah:] Call him crazy, call him unethical, this father heard it all except for one phrase.
[David:] All I want is my son to say I love you, dad. I love you. Can you say I love you? That's all I want to hear. I mean, I'm really close.
[Lah:] Close to finally reaching his son. Kyung Lah, CNN, Modesto, California.
[Malveaux:] Washington State has a first-in-history moment today with the recreational use of marijuana going in to effect. But the state is also marking another first.