When Sarah’s child was diagnosed with autism, Sarah snapped into action. “We spent hours and thousands of dollars on different therapies,” she says. “Occupational therapy, speech therapy, play therapy, ABA [applied behavioral analysis] therapy. We did 26 months of elimination diets for a number of reasons, to identify triggers, allergies, sensitivities.” Nothing worked, so she looked for new options.

“Right off the bat, I asked what was at the forefront of autism treatment? What was at the cutting edge — that is not bleach, shots of gold, or hyperbaric treatments that we couldn’t afford?”

She kept finding the same answer: medical marijuana.

Liz Lewis, writing at Narratively, shares the compelling story of one mom’s efforts to help other parents in her situation.