{"id":9167,"date":"2020-04-08T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T16:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=4047753"},"modified":"2020-04-08T16:03:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T16:03:45","slug":"charlotte-figi-13-year-old-coloradan-who-inspired-cbd-reform-dies-after-family-suspects-she-contracted-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/charlotte-figi-13-year-old-coloradan-who-inspired-cbd-reform-dies-after-family-suspects-she-contracted-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Figi, 13-year-old Coloradan who inspired CBD reform, dies after family suspects she contracted coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/charlotte-figi-13-year-old-coloradan-who-inspired-cbd-reform-dies-after-family-suspects-she-contracted-coronavirus\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/charlotte-figi-13-year-old-coloradan-who-inspired-cbd-reform-dies-after-family-suspects-she-contracted-coronavirus.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/04\/08\/charlotte-figi-obituary-coronavirus\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"4047753\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Figi, the young Colorado Springs girl whose battle with Dravet syndrome inspired changes to medical marijuana laws across the country and helped popularize CBD, has died after suffering an illness her family suspects was the new coronavirus. She was 13.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharlotte is no longer suffering,\u201d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10157904490479765&amp;set=a.159170044764&amp;type=3&amp;theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">family representative wrote on Facebook<\/a> on Tuesday night. \u201cShe is seizure-free forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement provided to The Denver Post, Charlotte\u2019s mother, Paige Figi, said the whole family got sick in early March, but because their symptoms did not all fit within the criteria for COVID-19, they were told to self-treat at home. Charlotte was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at a Colorado Springs hospital on Friday after her symptoms worsened and was treated on the floor specifically designated for COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte was tested for the novel coronavirus that day, but the results were negative, Figi said. She was discharged from the hospital on Sunday when her symptoms seemed to improve.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, however, Charlotte suffered a seizure that resulted in respiratory failure and cardiac arrest, Figi said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven our family\u2019s month-long history with illness and despite the negative test results, she was treated as a likely COVID-19 case,\u201d Figi said in the statement. \u201cHer fighting spirit held out as long as it could and she eventually passed in our arms peacefully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RealmofCaring\/posts\/2754350498007174:0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook post by Realm of Caring<\/a>, the nonprofit organization co-founded by Charlotte\u2019s mother that focuses on medical cannabis research and education, originally attributed the girl\u2019s death to \u201cCOVID-19 complications.\u201d The post has since been edited to remove that language.<\/p>\n<p>Michelle Hewitt, spokeswoman for El Paso County Public Health, on Wednesday said there had been no confirmed pediatric COVID-19 deaths in the county. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has not announced the death of anyone that young related to the coronavirus, though such announcements can lag by days as deaths are investigated.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte was one of Colorado\u2019s many medical marijuana refugees, whose family moved to the state following the legalization of cannabis. From the time she was an infant, she suffered from frequent and severe seizures because of Dravet syndrome, including many that required hospitalization. But at age 5, Paige Figi gave her cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known more commonly as CBD, and <a href=\"https:\/\/extras.denverpost.com\/stateofhope\/#part3\">Charlotte\u2019s condition changed overnight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharlotte slept soundly for the first time in years. She went seven days without a seizure. Over time, the seizures dropped from thousands a month to just a few. After not speaking for six months, she started talking again,\u201d The Denver Post previously reported.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte\u2019s journey was famously chronicled in a CNN documentary that inspired families like hers to try CBD, thrusting the relatively unknown cannabinoid into a national spotlight. The high-CBD strain of cannabis that helped changed her life was named Charlotte\u2019s Web in her honor.<\/p>\n<p>Research into CBD had been hampered by cannabis\u2019 status as a Schedule I drug, but Charlotte\u2019s story led many states to pass their own laws regarding CBD. Just recently, the Drug Enforcement Agency <a href=\"http:\/\/ir.gwpharm.com\/news-releases\/news-release-details\/gw-pharmaceuticals-plc-and-its-us-subsidiary-greenwich-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">removed Epidiolex<\/a>, the only CBD-derived medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration, from the scheduled substances list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat began as her story, became the shared story of hundreds of thousands, and the inspiration of many millions more in the journey of their betterment,\u201d the Charlotte\u2019s Web team wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CharlottesWebCBD\/photos\/a.385706088282141\/1405738459612227\/?type=3&amp;__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCZ2TCb-HPNx3UtbDoE92hnLc4OyTGuR93l-EStUjqV9IIi1ZBU4vWl2ovLpcOHJ8jxBvKwM7EEYCjyJEb-Q9wDAAGMVKvnNbHDShL4PaxmC2VRyoQV1qZB-WcADmuL80k6LIyOziQtuoMvcPNplAL73CIFGNpW9Gy-UQKsSbW5eiZaB8kgQj5Dy93FxoaoUZa5cpm9KS_MZDLxpBmeKHdbUAgaGMIWQSYdNJRPYsCDWVf0-GKOaP_Is1oUAwb2zdKcah6yiTTMnrzgkmLx8jZ_lyJblpFxb3-JzsGung1dKd-I7z0LDuzLxdlH2M596pCq-Z_JE_oDE4KgPPL8UqFkKA&amp;__tn__=-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook post<\/a> eulogizing the young girl. \u201cCharlotte was and will be, the heartbeat of our passion, and the conviction that the dignity and health of a human being is their right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others in the medical cannabis space remembered Charlotte on Wednesday, with tributes and condolences to her family.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cBecause of her bravery, millions of people get to experience an improved quality of life on a daily basis,\u201d said Chase Terwillinger, CEO of Balanced Health Botanicals, which makes CBD products. \u201cShe was the spark that ignited the industry and hemp revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though Charlotte is most often recognized for her contributions to popularizing CBD, Ricardo Baca, former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post\u2019s Cannabist website and CEO of the Grasslands public-relations agency, said her legacy reaches far wider. She and her family changed the global conversation about cannabis and convinced countless people of the medicinal benefits, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know that any one person will ever play a larger role in cannabis normalization than Charlotte did,\u201d Baca said. \u201cHer passing is especially tragic because she didn\u2019t ask to be this representative of the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Updated 1:30 p.m. April 8, 2020<\/strong> This story has been updated after the nonprofit organization co-founded by Charlotte Figi\u2019s mother retracted its claim that the 13-year-old died of \u201cCOVID-19 complications,\u201d and released a statement explaining the girl had tested negative for the new coronavirus, though the family still suspected she had contracted the illness.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Charlotte Figi, the young Colorado Springs girl whose battle with Dravet syndrome inspired changes to medical marijuana laws, has died. She was 13 years old. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,8264,8266,6892,6813,77,6999,56,9,5019,6949,1,3,8278,61,1736],"tags":[6816,8265,8268,6893,6818,2655,7000,2636,5022,6950,8279],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}