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American Drug War 2
Director Kevin Booth navigates through the cutting edge of Cannabis research while becoming a foster parent to a child court ordered to take powerful mind altering drugs.
After surviving brain surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, a 2-year-old boy lay in a coma not eating for over 40 days. His parents are told to make funeral arrangements. However, his father had read about a version of an ancient drug made from cannabis. Unbeknownst to the hospital staff, the parents start secretly injecting the illegal drug into their dying son’s feeding tube and soon a “miracle” takes place. When the doctors are told that cannabis was the cause of the “miracle,” they have nothing to say.
Every war has unintended victims and it’s the children who are losing America’s longest running war. From cartel recruiting grounds of Mexico – to a child being removed from his birth mother for smoking marijuana. Is it a conspiracy? Or simple profit motives that continue to keep marijuana inside the black market?
See the Trailer here: http://vimeo.com/62974651
Cash Hyde Foundation Video
Cash Michael Hyde
2008 - 2012
When Cashy was 20 months old Radiologist’s at Community Medical Center in Missoula, MT. Discovered a 4.5 cm. Stage 4 Brain Tumor in Cashy. He was transported on Life Flight to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. Cashy was placed on the 2nd floor NTU intensive care unit.
Cashy went into emergency open brain surgery the following day to try and remove the tumor. The surgeon’s only removed 10% of the tumor for biopsy because it had grown around his optic nerves. After the surgery Cashy lost his eyesight from the pressure of the tumor on his optic nerves.
Oncologist’s diagnosed Cashy with a Malignant and Aggressive Cancer classified as a PNET Brain Tumor. PNET’s are part of the Blue Cell Cancer group that our aggressive and have a high fatality rate. The Oncologist recommended that Cashy receive 3cycles of Chemotherapy followed by 3 cycles of High Dose Chemotherapy with Stem Cell Rescue. This protocol is aggressive and will take 6 to 8 months to complete.
We were told that we needed to do the treatment at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT and that Cashy would have to stay in the hospital for weeks at a time. We returned home to Missoula for 6 days to pack are basic belongings and prepare ourselves for the Battle of a Lifetime!
There are no words to describe watching chemotherapy take effect on someone you love. Chemotherapy kills cancer cells very aggressively unfortunately it kills healthy cells the same. If cancer has ever touched your life or the life of someone you know, I don’t have to tell you how devastating it is.
From the day Cashy’s tumor was discovered he has marveled the medical profession and defied odds countless times. Cashy is considered a Miracle to thousands of people around the world and many Doctors and Nurses. Along the way Cashy regained his vision, survived seizures, and many PICU emergencies. There were many ups and downs along the way but each day Cashy would fight with a smile earning him the title “THE BOY OF STEEL.”
Unfortunately on October-12-2011 the Hyde’s were told that Cashy’s brain tumor was back and that he must begin Proton Beam Radiation at the Loma Linda University in California. With radiation treatment Cash has a 30% chance of 5 year survival and risk of Leukemia Cancer, Blindness and severe Brain damage.
In June 2012, we drove from Missoula, MT to San Francisco, CA so Mike could speak at the High Time Cannabis Cup. We also had a booth for the foundation to spread Cashy's story and pediatric cancer awareness. It was also Cashy's fourth birthday and we had a blast going to the beach, the science museum, we drove through the Redwood forest and rode the gondola up the mountain to see some really huge trees!
While we were in San Francisco, we teamed up with United Patients Group and they donated/helped assemble and sticker 10 reggae runners to children’s hospitals in the bay area.
During our trip to San Francisco, Cashy had started throwing up and acting more tired than usual. He continued to complain about a pain in his lower abdomen, sometimes he would scream it would hurt him so bad. We had several tests done to rule out different things it could have been; radiation enteritis, tumors in his abdomen, blockage or constipation. He had CT scans done with barium enema studies, he had ultrasounds, lab tests, and all the tests came back negative. After two more weeks and his condition only worsening, we did what we feared the most and ordered an early brain MRI even though he had been cancer free at the end of May.
July 27th, 2012 Cashy’s MRI revealed a 2.7cm brain tumor in the same location as the previous two tumors. We were devastated but we’re hopeful that we would be able to save him with a natural treatment plan using cannabis oil, the Gerson Therapy and other immune boosting remedies. We had exhausted our options with chemotherapy and radiation as he had went through and received all the heavy hitter chemo drugs and the top notch radiation therapy offered. We made the decision that we wouldn’t put him through any of that ever again. No more brain scans, no more IV’s, no more Ports, no more Central Lines, Lab tests or hearing and kidney tests and most importantly “No More Pokes,” as Cashy had asked. We honored his request even though we knew what the outcome would likely be.
Cashy Fought hard for five more months, he never received one more poke, like we had promised. He never set foot in the hospital ever again. Cashy passed away November 14th, 2012 in the arms of his daddy while wearing a pair of his favorite monkey pajamas. He forever changed our family and many lives of others who have followed his amazing journey. Cashy’s legacy will live on for years and years to come. He will never be forgotten.
Fundraisers & Donations
This Battle would not have been possible without the financial support we received from the fundraisers & donations that were put together by family, friends and strangers all across Montana, and other States thanks to Cashy’s Facebook friends. We were able to leave work for 9 months and concentrate on helping Cashy fight Cancer as a Family. We were able to be at the hospital 24hrs a day and Cashy never had to be alone. We are very thankful for all that everyone has done.
Camp Cashy
Since Salt Lake City is 500 miles from our home in Missoula we brought down the family camp trailer and camped out at Primary Children’s Hospital for 9 months. We were very fortunate to have it considering some families sleep on the floor and in the waiting rooms. It was nice to get out of the hospital and take a break. We called it Camp Cashy and it was our piece of Montana in Utah.
Big Brother Colten is the Rock of our family and played a great roll in this battle. Colten can make anyone smile and loves flirting with nurses, so I guess you could say he was in his element at Primary Children’s. Kalli and I would switch each day and one of us would take Colten and go swimming or just hang out. Colten made us keep our spirits up and stay positive.
