Charlotte Figi: The Girl Who Changed Everything

Sometimes one person changes the world. Charlotte Figi was that person for cannabis medicine.

Charlotte was born in 2006 with Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. By age 5, she was having 300 seizures a week. Three hundred. Her heart had stopped multiple times. She was in a wheelchair, could barely speak, and was on seven different medications that weren't working.

Her parents had tried everything conventional medicine offered. Nothing worked. Charlotte was dying.

The Desperate Gamble

In desperation, Charlotte's parents turned to cannabis. Not the high-THC variety, but a strain high in CBD—a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that was showing promise in seizure research.

The results were immediate and dramatic. Charlotte's seizures dropped from 300 per week to just 2-3 per month. She started walking again. Talking again. Living again.

The strain that saved her life was renamed "Charlotte's Web" in her honor.

The Ripple Effect

Charlotte's story, featured in CNN's documentary "Weed" by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, changed the national conversation about cannabis. Here was undeniable evidence that cannabis could be medicine—not for getting high, but for saving lives.

Dr. Bob Melamede had been saying this for years, but Charlotte's story made it real for millions of people. You could argue with theories. You couldn't argue with a little girl who could walk again.

"Charlotte didn't just save herself—she opened the door for millions of others."

The Legacy

Charlotte passed away in 2020, likely from COVID-19 complications. She was 13 years old. But her legacy lives on in the laws she helped change, the research she inspired, and the lives she saved.

The endocannabinoid system that Charlotte's story helped bring to public attention is now being studied seriously by researchers worldwide. CBD is now FDA-approved for certain seizure disorders.

The Forward-Looking People who fought for cannabis medicine—often at great personal cost—were vindicated by Charlotte's story. Sometimes being right isn't enough. You need a story that touches hearts. Charlotte was that story.