Izabella Zucker

The minute hand struck 11:55 P.M. Mike and Kelli Hopkins, tuned in from their
television in Covington, Ga., held their breath for a miracle.
The iron clock on the living room wall, nestled among an array of family
portraits, closed in on another minute. In the corner, Abes IV beeped, piercing the silent
agony. They looked on at their television, clinging to every ounce of hope that remained.
All they had fought for over the past two months hung in thin air.
The minute hand closed in, then again twice more until the clock struck midnight.
That was it. Their hope was siphoned. Their bill had died.
Then Abe started having a seizure.
It was not how I expected to feel, said Kelli. It was heart breakingI was
holding him and just thought, this was going to give us some hope, this was our last
chance.
Had HB 885 passed, the Hopkins and thousands of other Ga. families would have
gained legal access to cannabis oil to treat seizure disorders for their children. Instead,
they were left empty handed.
Three out of the Hopkins four childrenMary Elizabeth, Michala, and Abe
suffer from uncontrollable seizures on a daily basis. For years, theyve been on a cycle of
debilitating medications, all of which could be made a distant memory in the wake of
cannabis oil treatment.
Were at the point where we cant do anything else, said Kelli. Theyre maxed
out on their medications.

She turned her gazed turned towards the kitchen, nodding at the collection of pill
bottles on the counter. A jumble of plastic jars, rubber tubes, and oxygen masks replaces a
toaster or a blender. A small wicker basket on top of the refrigerator contains an
assortment of colored bandanas.
Michala bites those during her seizures.
Their childrens cocktail of drugs produces hundreds of crippling side effects
including muscle weakness, loss of appetite, irritability, lethargy, loss of visionand
death.
Their medication doesnt cure their seizures, it helps control them, said Mike.
But after so many weeks their seizures come back because their bodies have adjusted.
With cannabis oil, no one has seen that honeymoon effect.
Mike and Kelli Hopkins begin each day at 4:30 A.M.. Mike gets dressed for work
while Kelli administers the first round of medications for the day. They have most likely
been up all night, holding one of their children through a seizure.
There are so many people who dont understand how beneficial and life
changing this treatment is, said Annie Koozer, a long-time friend of the Hopkins.
Koozer made the decision to move her family to Colorado last summer to gain
legal access to cannabis oil treatment. Her daughter, Piper, suffers from Aicardi
syndrome, the same seizure disorder as Michala Hopkins.
Since we started the oil weve seen amazing improvements. Shes gone from
having over 250 small seizures a day to having many seizure free days, said Koozer.
We feel that it has saved our daughters life.

For Koozer and her family, moving to Colorado came as an easy decision. Like
the Hopkins, they had no other options left.
We were desperate...but it breaks my heart that others struggling with
debilitating health problems cannot have the chance to at least try cannabis oil, said
Koozer. Moving to another state is not an option for most people.
Like most people, moving to Colorado remains an impossibility for the Hopkins.
Theres just not a way we could do it, said Kelli. Theres no way Mike could
leave his work and lose insuranceitd just be me with the four children.
For the Hopkins children, the hope for a better quality of life remained dependent
upon the states legal landscape. Two letters, three numbersHB 885meant no more
catatonic months, no more restless nights, no more bandanas.
So what went wrong?
The life span of HB 885 was nothing short of a strange political odyssey. From
the bills inception on January 28 through its unexpected demise on March 20, the lives
of the Hopkins children and thousands others swung on a pendulum between the Ga.
House and Senate.
We were excited because it was going so well in the House, said Kelli. We
had so many votes.
To perpetuate the bills momentum, Mike, Kelli, and their four children joined
dozens of other parents in lobbying at the state capitol.
Its kind of overwhelming when we walk in with not just one, but three wheel
chairs, said Mike. We were told the day we went up there by so many politicians, oh
yes well vote for it, well vote for it.

Everything changed the day HB 885 graced the desk of Senator Renee Unterman.
It was here where she insisted SB 397, a bill requiring state-regulated health plans to
cover treatment of children with autism, be attached to HB 885.
On the last night of the legislative session, as Mike and Kelli anxiously sat
watching from their living room, Unterman took to the Senate floor and insisted the
medical marijuana bill go nowhere without the autism amendment. This required the bill
to be sent back to the House for a vote, which had previously rejected SB 397 earlier in
the session.
I watched the senator who attached the autism bill that killed it, said Josh
Wayne, the president and founder of the Medical Marijuana Club at UGA.
Wayne and other UGA students ventured to the state capitol several times to lobby
for the HB 885 bill.
We were excited that the discussion was being had, said Wayne.
That discussion turned sour as the bill became butchered between the House and
Senate, sent back and forth as the minute hand in the Hopkins living room waned.
They held it hostage and werent going to let it pass, said Kelli. It was like the
rug had been pulled out from under us.
Despite their disappointment, the Hopkins remain resilient in their determination
for better quality of life. Their bill, though battered amid political spitfire, signified
impressive progress in a region dominated by Southern, conservative culture.
Its pretty incredible how far it got, said Mike. The big thing for us is to keep it
to the forefront so that it doesnt go awaynow weve got an opportunity to change
things and make it better.