First Orlando-area cancer patient gets access to therapeutic marijuana products

Cannabis products Amanda Gammisch

Eleven months ago, Amanda Gammisch was rushed to the hospital, unconscious and having seizures, and she learned she had Grade 3 brain cancer. On Monday, she became the first Orlando patient to receive CBD Oil, a therapeutic cannabis product from Surterra Therapeutics, which will hopefully be able to fight the cancer and extend her life.

Gammisch, 36, has been a patient at the office of Dr. Joseph Rosado in Deltona, where she appeared Monday afternoon to receive the product from Surterra president Susan Driscoll. Rosado was the fifth doctor Gammisch tried to contact, with the others not wanting or not having the ability to address her case. But Rosado stuck with her and, eventually, Driscoll reached out with the opportunity to try CBD Oil.

While you wouldn’t know Gammisch has cancer from looking at her, CBD Oil will go a long way towards helping her quality of life.

“It’s what I like to call the invisible disease,” she said. “Looking at me on the street, I don’t look like I have a five-year life expectancy, but that’s what I’m up against.”

She stressed that the drug isn’t for getting high, as some people assumed — it’s strictly therapeutic, which Rosado also spoke about.

“The biggest misnomer is ‘oh, these people just want to get high or stoned,’” Rosado said. “This is medicine. This is not psychoactive. The purpose of this is to restore her health and allow her body to respond to natural treatment.”

Gammisch’s only option now is chemotherapy, which can make her sicker and ruin her appetite. Due to her successful second surgery earlier this year, her doctors want her to wait and instead spend time getting as healthy as she can through diet and exercise, to get her immune system strong enough to fight it on her own.

“The opportunity to take CBD Oil is huge for me,” she said. “This will actually cross the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from a lot of medicines we put into the body, including chemotherapy. This will be actually going into the brain and attacking the cancer cells, and maybe even alert my own immune system to fight the cancer as well.”

While there is no cure for brain cancer right now, she’s hoping the drug, at least, can lengthen her life and improve things for her right now, if it doesn’t defeat the cancer altogether.

“It works for some people,” she said. “Everyone is different, and your body responds to different medicines differently. There are 120 kinds of brain tumors.”

The laws in Florida force doctors to have a relationship with a patient for 90 days before prescribing them therapeutic cannabis drugs for diseases like brain cancer, so Gammisch said some patients might not have the time they need to reap the effects of products like CBD Oil.

“I’d like to say that when you’re a Grade 4 cancer patient, your life expectancy is 15 months or less,” she said. “A three-month waiting period is difficult to swallow when you’re looking for other treatments.”

Larry Griffin


6 comments

  • Alice

    August 9, 2016 at 3:52 pm

    It takes a special formula of high THC CBD oil to cause shrinkage of brain tumors… Phoenix Tears is the formula… CBD oil without THC is only good for pain control as and seizure control.. They’ve got this poor cancer patient fooled…”they “allowed access “… LMAO… If I had cancer no one could keep me from getting Phoenix Tears .

    • James Peters

      August 11, 2016 at 12:43 am

      The oil hasn’t cured anyone of anything. You need to remember that the plural of anecdote isn’t data and if you are basing your claims on anecdotal experience, then any treatment will seem to work for anything and everything. Based on this study (PubMed 16306858) a person would need to take 7-54 grams at hour zero and then 3-27 every hour after to have a very modest effect on the growth of their cancer. This assumes it doesn’t stimulate the growth of the type they may have. Do you really think the molecules are so magical they will be non toxic at these extremely high doses?. Sure you do!. But then you have bought this man’s lies.

  • Susan Murphy

    August 9, 2016 at 4:39 pm

    How can I get this?
    I have a malignant brain tumor as well as lymphoma and lung cancer

  • Sherry pringle

    August 9, 2016 at 11:40 pm

    Congratulations Amanda. A huge victory. Hope it’s just one of many for you.

  • Stamie Ilewicz

    August 10, 2016 at 4:19 pm

    Do you have to be a resident of Florida?

  • Stephanie Smith

    August 12, 2016 at 11:23 pm

    I would move to be a patient and use CBD OIL, TRIAL OR NOT….HOW CAN I GO ABOUT FINDING TBIS DR. OR ANOTHER DR. TO TREAT ME. 859-630-1999

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories