Dad fights for access to marijuana for epileptic son in California

NEVADA COUNTY, CA (KTRK) -- Eight-year-old Silas Hurd has his good days and his bad days.

Video of Hurd is hard to watch as he suffers from debilitating seizures.

His father, Forrest Hurd, took video of his son as he lay disabled so people can see why he says the boy needs medicinal marijuana.

"The county has banned any production," Forrest Hurd says.

Silas has a rare type of epilepsy resistant to many medications, but after many tries, his family found a compound of cannabis, a medicinal oil, that kept his seizures in check.

"Before we found the strain, we didn't think Silas was going to make it through the year," Forrest says. "He was having 50 seizures a day, and nothing was helping."

Silas' medication was being produced by a volunteer collective, but his dad says that outdoor production is now illegal.

"This is what this is about," says Sheriff Keith Royal. "It's not about medicine, it's about money."

Sheriff Royal says Nevada County recently put in place a temporary ban, prohibiting outdoor marijuana. It also limits indoor grows to 12 plants in an effort to crackdown on growers.

"We saw a significant uptick in the in the number of complaints we received this year," Royal says.

The sheriff says residents complain of the marijuana smell and chemicals used in its production, which is polluting water and killing wildlife.

"The trash...it's terrible!" the sheriff exclaimed.

Forrest Hurd says he too is against marijuana growers causing such destruction, but he believes the county can work something out instead implementing such a restrictive ordinance.

"For convenience, we've now banned from everybody, and everybody is some really sick critical children," Forrest Hurd says.