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Parents Pushing for Charlotte’s Web

Florida’s debate about legalizing a strain of medical marijuana for children has brought notoriety for affected families, and not all of it is positive.

In Tampa, Renee Petro received a visit from Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office’s child abuse investigators. She is accused of giving her son, Branden, marijuana to help deal with his severe disabilities, including frequent seizures, The Tampa Tribune reports. In January, Petro testified before a legislative committee about a strain of the drug, called “Charlotte’s Web.”

Meanwhile, in Gulf Breeze, Peyton and Holley Moseley have seen their grass-roots nonprofit organization, Caring 4 Florida, become popular online and with legislators such as state Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, the Pensacola News Journal reports. The couple has testified and visited the Capitol several times on behalf of their daughter, RayAnne, who suffers from a form of epilepsy and needs the drug to control seizures.

Also, the Tampa Bay Times reports that research dispels one of the arguments against this fall’s constitutional amendment about medical marijuana.While America began experimenting with medical marijuana nearly twenty years ago, reported teen use of recreational marijuana has “barely changed” since 1996 the Times reports.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.