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this was the day chaz moore almost died. pumped full of drugs like morphine, valium to quiet a nonstop 48-hour attack. >> they thought i was going to overdose, and, yeah, it was pretty bad. >> at his bedside his father, sean, watched his son go from being catatonic to what he calls high as a kite. >> how high are you on the morphine? >> i'm not high on -- >> i watched friends of mine die from taking the same drugs that he took. >> you see, sean was a drug addict, and he had struggled for decades to get clean. >> it was scary. it was important for him not to take these drugs if he could avoid it. >> if he could avoid them. i know how addictive they are.

i've seen it. it scared the hell out of me. >> but sean is not scared of marijuana and neither is chaz. >> this right here, i don't get sick off of it. i can't overdose. >> and chaz is right about that. while there are fatal accidental prescription medicine overdoses, every 19 minutes in this country, there are virtually no reports of fatal marijuana overdoses. and it's perhaps one of the biggest reasons most people think pot is safe. in fact, a new study of children showed that by high school only one in five think marijuana is harmful. that's the lowest number in more than two decades, and it's something we heard over and over as we travelled around the country. >> not really that harmful. >> it has a lot of benefits. not really too concerned about it. >> i think it's safe if you're a safe person. >> but the experts we spoke to said there is more to the story. >> there are people who

compulsively smoke, who want to stop smoking, but they can't stop smoking. >> in fact, 9% of marijuana users will become dependent. now, that's not as high as other drugs, like heroin. 23% of users become addicted. 17% with cocaine. 15% with alcohol. it's still approximately one out of every 11 marijuana smokers. >> there's no longer any scientific debate that marijuana's not just psychologically addictive, but also physically addictive. >> so give me an update. how are you doing? >> dr. christian runs one of colorado's largest youth substance abuse clinics. the number of marijuana addicts he treats has tripled in the last three years alone. >> literally i cried about it. marijuana is number one on their list of priorities. they have dropped out of life. >> back in the day i would have not felt like my day has really

started unless i got high. >> joel vargas started smoking when he was just 13. by 15 he was smoking more than a dozen times a day. he stopped skateboarding. he even dropped out of school. >> i like getting high. i need to get high because my brain is telling me. >> adolescents starting about age 13 have a pretty mature brain reward center. so they can experience rewards and pleasures the same way adults can, but the problem with that is that their prefrontal cortex, which helps people think ahead, control their impulses, that's not fully developed until age 24. that explains why adolescents are much more vulnerable. >> there's something else that addiction experts believe is likely happening in the brain. when you smoke pot, the feel-good chemicals that make up marijuana called cannabinoids, remember them?

they cause your brain to stop producing its own natural cannabinoids. when you stop smoking, you have no feel good cannabinoids of your own. until your body kick starts production, you feel lousy, so many people smoke again to feel better. and today's marijuana could be more addictive. it has more of the psychoactive ingredient thc than ever before. brain researcher dr. nora volkow. >> if you smoke a very potent marijuana, then the thc content is going to go very fast into your brain at relatively high concentrations, and then that increases its rewarding effects and likelihood of transitioning into addiction. >> how much stronger is it? >> you see the barbed wire, obviously, on the fences. >> well, i traveled to mississippi where marijuana is illegal, but here on the campus of one of the country's oldest universities, ole miss, a huge stash of marijuana is under lock and key.

>> this is our vault. >> this is some pretty tight security. look at this door. >> mahmoud runs what's called a marijuana potency project. what's the potency of this? >> this is about 8%. >> for three decades now his team has analyzed weed confiscated from drug busts. >> this is 36% thc. you can smell it. it has a good aromatic smell. >> how much is this worry you, 36% thc confiscated? >> very dangerous material. for someone that is not experienced in marijuana smoking takes some of this, and they're going to go into the negative effects of the high, the psychosis, the irritation, irritability, paranoia, all of this. >> while not all the plants are this high, there's no question he has seen a trend. in 1972 the average potency was less than 1% thc. now it's nearly 13%. >> are people becoming more

obsessed with high thc marijuana? >> i think so. they're starting out with a half a percent and 1%, and they get a good high, and then as they continue to use that, it doesn't give them the same high anymore, so they seek either smoking more or higher potency material. >> it happened to joel vargas. after a couple of years of smoking daily, joel eventually ended up in rehab where he faced mild withdrawal symptoms like irritability, insomnia, nausea. >> certainly it isn't anything nearly as dangerous as abrupt discontinuation of alcohol. you know, for somebody like joel, going rehab is really about learning new behaviors more than it is about sort of treating the physiological dependence or tolerance or withdrawal issues. >> joel has been clean now for six months, but these kinds of risks, they don't scare off charlotte's parents.

>> people ask us that a lot. like, how do you make that decision? it wasn't a decision. it was the next viable option. >> and some would say a radical option, marijuana for a 5-year-old. but it was an option they hoped would change her life forever. >> baby. >> when we come back, matt and paige figge finally give their charlotte marijuana. the results are shocking. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food.

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it was january 2012, afghanistan, about 7,000 miles away from his family in colorado, matt figge received this video from his wife paige.

>> it's horrible seeing these videos when i'm deployed. >> it was his 5-year-old daughter, charlotte, seizing. diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy, she was having 300 seizures a week. each attack so severe it had the potential to kill her. they had already tried dozens of high-powered drugs. >> we needed to try something else, and at that point in time marijuana was that natural course of action to try. >> at home in colorado paige searched for marijuana high in cbd. that's the ingredient some scientists think helps seizures and also low in thc. remember, she didn't want to get her daughter stoned. she found a small amount in a denver dispensary. the owner was surprised that anyone would even want it. >> they said it's funny because no one buys this. that was the general consensus, no one wanted it. it didn't have any effect. >> paige paid $800 for a small

bag and took it home. >> i had a friend that was starting a business making medicine, and i said can you help me extract the medicine from the bag of marijuana? i measured it with a syringe and squirted it under her tongue. it was exciting and very nerve-racking. >> holding charlotte in her arms, paige waited. an hour ticked by. then another. then another. >> she didn't have seizures that day. then she didn't have a seizure that night. >> did you sit there and look at your watch? >> right. i thought this is crazy. and then she didn't have one the next day. and the next day. i thought that is -- she would have had 100 by now. i just -- i know. i just thought this is insane. >> i remember how happy paige was. it's really working. i can't believe it. yeah, that was pretty amazing to hear.

>> it had worked. but in just a couple of weeks the excitement was overshadowed by panic. paige was running out of marijuana and the dispensary didn't have any more of that particular strain. but then paige heard about the stanleys, the six brothers and their greenhouse of marijuana that is high in cbd. >> i said, oh, my goodness. i said just don't touch that because we need that plant. >> at first they didn't want to take the risk of giving marijuana to such a young child. but then they met her. >> tell me about the first time you met matt, paige, and charlotte. >> hmm. >> i'm going to get you misty-eyed. >> yeah, you get all of us crying when we start talking about that little girl. >> the figges had hit the jackpot, a steady supply of high-cbd marijuana, and they

only had to pay what they could afford. >> people have called us the robinhoods of marijuana. they say we sell pot so we can take care of the kids, and the truly less fortunate. >> charlotte was the first of those kids. late spring 2012 she tried the stanley special marijuana, and again it worked. >> i can't tell you what that means to us. >> gets you, doesn't it, a little bit? >> if it doesn't get you, something is wrong with you. she lived her life in a catatonic state. now her parents get to meet her for the first time. what a revelation. >> the child who had 300 seizures a week was now down to just one every seven days. >> pitter pat, tiptoe. >> when i first met charlotte, march of 2013 it was one year after that first dose of

marijuana. >> achoo. >> after almost two years on a feeding tube, she was now eating on her own. >> yellow. >> she was talking. even walking. >> please. >> she said please. >> but these stories, they are not without their skeptics. one of the country's two hospitals dedicated to gervais syndrome in florida states at present there is no evidence that cannabidiol is effective for the treatment of epilepsy. the american academy of pediatrics also opposes cannabis as does the national institute on drug abuse. >> it is such an amazing turn of events that it really can't be a fluke, but i do still wonder. >> do you still wonder too, matt? >> hell no. >> you know it's working? >> it's working great. >> you just look wonderful. >> and charlotte's doctor, alan shackelford, also agrees.

yet his commitment to medical marijuana has drawn criticism. he has even been called dr. feel good. >> how difficult is this for you to talk about as a physician? >> we are typically conservative as a profession and probably as individuals. we want more proof, and cannabis doesn't have that. >> and it's why he has traveled the world to look for researchers who might have the answers. that took him to the place many call the medical marijuana research capital. israel. it might surprise you, but actually, research into cannabis and epilepsy started here in the 1970s with studies showed it can reduce convulsions in rats. today shackleford is hoping to start clinical trials in humans there. >> we need to understand it well enough that they won't be reluctant to at least give it a thought. at least try it. >> and it's not just epilepsy, but researchers in israel are

studying a variety of illnesses. when we come back, what they're finding up close, and an amazing look inside hospitals and nursing homes where patients are lighting up courtesy of the israeli government.

as the sun was rising on the ancient city of jerusalem, the final leg of our journey was just beginning. >> there had been some great advances here, and i'm proud of that, obviously. >> dr. boas lev is with israel's ministry of health. here they have pioneered marijuana research. they were the first to isolate thc and cbd decades ago. now the country's ministry licensed 10,000 patients to use marijuana medicinally and has approved more than a dozen studies to treat illnesses like ptsd, pain, crohn's disease, even cancer.

>> hopefully this would prove to be the best medication. i really hope so. we're not there yet. >> the answers might come from places like this. it's a state-run nursing home outside of tel aviv. residents here are using marijuana for pain, loss of appetite, parkinson's disease, and dementia. moshe root is one of those residents. he was 77 when he smoked his first pipe of marijuana. he is 80 now, and he smokes a couple of pipes a day. it's to help with the pain and the hand tremors caused by stroke. >> it's a mixture of tobacco and marijuana. >> he even decided to light up during our interview to stop his hands from shaking. >> you are saying your hands are steady because of the marijuana? >> it also helped ease a deeper pain hidden from sight. you see moshe is a holocaust survivor.

when his wife died a couple of years ago, he was haunted by nightmares of his childhood hiding from the nazis. the marijuana, he says, took him out of the darkness. >> you dream. you fly. >> when you smoke? >> yeah. >> there are 19 other patients here. scientists at tel aviv university are now studying their progress. they call the results outstanding. including weight gain, improved mood, pain and tremor reduction. but i can tell you as a doctor it was my next stop that proved the most surprising. this is israeli's largest hospital, sheba medical center. he is using marijuana to help him with the pain and nausea from chemotherapy. >> filling up the spoon. so that's your medicine inside there. >> you want to take it out?

>> and he's doing it inside the hospital. >> how are you feeling? >> relief. first of all in the muscle in the leg. >> and you're not worried about any potential damage to your body? >> not at all. the opposite, actually. i really believe i can be cancer-free for a long time if i continue, you know, consume cannabis. >> yes, he said cancer-free. very early studies on mice in israel, spain, and the united states are now showing the potential of marijuana to kill cancer cells. it's exciting research, but it is still in its infancy, and it's inconclusive. this program at sheba is well established, and experts say a teaching tool for using marijuana in other hospitals. >> do you think this could happen in the united states? >> i don't know that there's yet

enough really concrete evidence of cannabis's benefit that's satisfactory. at least in that context. i think it's going to come. >> but it could be slow going. >> the fda has been great at approving studies. but national institute of drug abuse has been really stonewalling and blocking any studies looking at therapeutic effects of cannabis, because that's not their mandate. their mandate is to look at the harms of drug use. >> it's very easy to blame an organization. >> dr. nora volkow, who is the director of nida says they are not standing in the way. she claims they are not the only government institute that approves marijuana research. >> if you would come up with a grant that says, okay, this is going to be a treatment for drug addiction, then go to us, but if it's cancer, it goes to the cancer institute. if it is schizophrenia, it goes to imh, the institutes have a mission with certain diseases. >> what is clear, there are bureaucratic hoops that most researchers simply don't want to jump through.

neuroscientist carl hart. >> there are not many people studying marijuana. it's very difficult to get approved to study marijuana. >> what's nice about israel is that the government is helping the research to happen. >> and it's research that could give hope to patients like charlotte figge. scientists in israel are learning that marijuana use might actually protect the brain, not damage it. >> they've been able to show that it can decrease the amount of brain damage from head injuries in mice. >> right. to be able to give a medicine after the injury to reverse some of the damage, that's huge. >> i want to paint my nails. >> you want to paint your nails? i'll paint your nails. >> i literally see charlotte's brain making connections that haven't been made in years. it's almost seeming to build her brain where before it seemed broken. >> and while scientists are

still at the early stages of knowing if this is actually happening, i can tell you it was remarkable to see her progress. in the three months since we first met her, we saw a change. she was now talking more. >> say puppy. >> puppy! >> yay! >> she's horseback riding. >> good girl. >> she even rides a bike on her own. and the special strain made for charlotte is now named for her. it's charlotte's web. >> it is charlotte's plant. >> it's charlotte's plant. not anymore. now it's for all the children. >> more than 41 children are using charlotte's web here in colorado. all of them are reporting significant seizure reduction, and there are dozens more on a wait list hoping, praying that a plant could change their lives. just like it did for charlotte. >> i'm going to get you. >> you both seem very at peace. >> i'm very at peace, yeah. very peaceful. >> we've been given a great life. it's unfortunate that charlie

has this gervais syndrome, but thank god we've got something now that's working. >> she's doing so great today. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com