She was just 13 years old and, from an early age, this girl from Colorado became a beacon of hope for the treatment of diseases with medical cannabis, helping to dispel negative assumptions associated with this plant. She died of respiratory complications related to coronavirus, or COVID-19.
Charlotte suffered from Dravet's syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy causing her to suffer up to 300 attacks a week. After her parents tried various treatments without success, they moved to Colorado and turned to medical marijuana oil from a low-THC, high-CBD strain.
Her CBD treatment was a success, reducing her seizures to just one or two a month. Charlotte was even able to walk, talk and play like other children, becoming a leading symbol of medical cannabis and inspiring a revolutionary movement to legitimise cannabis as a therapeutic option, even for children. If the analyses are confirmed, Figi would be the youngest person to die in Colorado from COVID-19.
Her history of struggle and recovery led to the development of 'Charlotte's Web', a special cannabis strain rich in CBD and designed for medical purposes, hybridised by the Stanley Brothers, a Colorado cannabis business with which Charlotte's parents created the Realm of Caring Foundation, a non-profit organisation that helps those who cannot afford medical cannabis gain access to potential treatments.
Thus, what started as one family's struggle turned into one supported by thousands of American families fighting for effective treatments for many of their children's serious illnesses.
Thanks to her story, in 2014 several states legalised CBD and/or medical cannabis; and hemp, which can be used to produce CBD, was removed from the Controlled Substances Act. Four years later, the US Congress passed a bill that legalised industrial hemp. And, in June 2018, Epidiolex became the first CBD-containing medication to receive FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval to treat childhood seizures.
Last year, at the age of 12, Charlotte became the first girl to appear on the cover of High Times magazine. She was also the subject of the documentary Weed by Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. "Charlotte changed the world. She certainly changed my world, and my mind. She opened my eyes to the possibility of cannabis being a legitimate medicine," Gupta wrote in his tribute to Charlotte.
"Your work is done, Charlotte; and now you can rest knowing that you have left it a better place," Realm of Caring wrote as an epitaph.
Some trips are long and easy. Still others are short, poignant, and destined to revolutionise the world. Such was the path taken by this little girl with a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet's syndrome, as her story marked a turning point in the medical cannabis movement.