A boy with autism once described as “hostile” and “dangerous” is now healthy and calm thanks to medicinal marijuana, his mom says.

Mieko Hester-Perez gives her son Joey Perez, 10, brownies laced with marijuana to help his appetite and calm his behaviors. Before trying the pot brownies, Hester-Perez says her son exhibited self-injurious and extremely aggressive behaviors and would run out of the house. He also did not want to eat and dropped to just 48 pounds.

Soon after trying the drug, “his demeanor changed,” the California mom says. “He was calm.” Perez gained nearly 40 pounds and he began making sounds for the first time.

Perez’ psychiatrist warns that medical marijuana is not a cure, but that it’s changed Perez for the better. Today the boy takes just two medications a day versus 13 before he started eating the brownies.

But even Hester-Perez recognizes that more research needs to be done on the practice. Trouble is that it’s tough to get government funding to research medicinal uses of marijuana, experts say.

Meanwhile, doctors critical of the practice say that putting kids under the effect of a drug is not the answer. It could lead to addiction, psychosis and even schizophrenia, they say.

Hester-Perez remains undeterred convinced that marijuana “balanced” her son and saved his life, reports ABC News. To read more click here.

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