Six-year-old Jayden David violently shakes on the ground , his blue eyes vacant and then filled with searing pain . The video shows an unvarnished look at a seizure , something Jayden once experienced routinely . Not anymore , says his father , thanks to medical marijuana . Before he started taking a liquid , nonpsychoactive form of marijuana , Jayden could n't walk , eat solid food or take a bath . He has Dravet 's syndrome , a rare and catastrophic form of childhood epilepsy . It has triggered seizures so frequent that 44 times he has been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance , his distraught father by his side . Jayden 's doctors prescribed 22 anti-seizure pills a day , which controlled the seizures but left him immobilized due to the side effects . `` He 's in pain and suffering and crying , '' said Jayden 's father , Jason David . `` You ca n't help him no matter what . What are you supposed to do ? You have to do whatever it takes to save their life . '' Last year , he had enough . Delirious with fatigue and emotional pain , Jason David called his mother to say he wanted to put a gun to his head , just to end the heartbreak of seeing his son suffer . His mother convinced him to not give up . David turned to something he had seen on television : medical marijuana . On June 4 , 2011 , David gave his son marijuana . For the first time since Jayden was 4 months old , the boy went through an entire day without a seizure . `` Instead of medical marijuana , this is miracle marijuana , '' said David , holding up a jam jar full of liquefied and cooled cannabis . Jayden is not just walking , he 's running . He plays at a park , climbing up and down the steps of the jungle gym . He swims at his local pool , splashing in the water with his father and other children . He loves to go to Fuddruckers to dig into his favorite food , a cheeseburger with mushrooms . His father has begun to wean him off the powerful pharmaceutical pills , which he believes have kept his son from developing properly . Children and medical marijuana . The liquid , nonpsychoactive form of marijuana that Jayden takes ensures the boy does n't get `` high . '' In a laboratory , the marijuana is distilled down to mostly cannabidiols , which advocates say is the potent medicinal value of the drug . Harborside Health Center , a medical marijuana clinic in Oakland , California , helped create the original tincture Jayden took . The center still analyzes and tests the marijuana before David administers it to his son . Harborside says it helps a number of child patients , including Jayden , whose parents legally obtain the marijuana . `` Parents do n't want to bring their children to something controversial like cannabis , '' says Harborside 's executive director , Steven DeAngelo . `` They do it reluctantly , and they do it because they 're at their wit 's end . '' Eighteen states have legalized marijuana for medicinal uses or limited personal use . California , which has the nation 's largest number of registered users , does not keep demographic data on its registrants . But Colorado has 45 registered users under age 18 , Oregon reports 56 child users and Montana has 55 . DeAngelo says children with severe autism , epilepsy , ADHD and cancer can be helped by medicinal marijuana . But those sick children , says DeAngelo , often face barriers to accessing marijuana . `` What I worry about are the thousands and thousands of children like Jayden who are suffering unnecessarily , who I know we could help , '' he says . `` The only thing separating them from help are outdated rules that need to be changed . '' Those rules are at the federal level , where marijuana remains illegal . Highs and lows of using marijuana . Dr. Seth Ammerman , a pediatrician and specialist in adolescent substance addiction , acknowledges anecdotal reports like Jayden 's remarkable turnaround . But he warns that a parent is `` flying by the seat of his or her pants '' when it comes to treating children with marijuana . `` I do think there 's potential for these cannabinoids to be medically relevant , but at this time we do n't know the risks , '' says Ammerman . Because marijuana is illegal at the federal level , the government has n't conducted any thorough research on the possible medicinal benefits . Ammerman is in favor of federal testing , but without it , he says marijuana is too risky to administer to children . `` We do n't know if these treatments are going to work for every given child , or every given adolescent . There may well be serious side effects . '' David says he 'd pit his son 's progress on medical marijuana against any pharmaceutical drug that currently treats Dravet 's syndrome . What drives him , he says , is the hope that his boy will one day say , `` I love you , '' something David says a thousand times a day to his son . While we 're present , Jayden says something close to `` I love you . '' His father 's face lights up . `` That 's all I want to hear , '' says David . He hugs his son . `` I 'm really close . ''
Jayden David suffers from a rare form of childhood epilepsy . The 6-year-old suffered from frequent , violent seizures . At wit 's end , his father gave him a liquid , nonpsychoactive form of cannabis . For more than a year , it has helped stem his seizures .