Since 30 percent of epilepsies do not respond to currently available drug treatments,163 there is great interest in anecdotal accounts of the successful use of cannabis and its derivatives to treat these disorders. Over 20 million people worldwide have pharmacoresistant epilepsies. There is a pressing need for new, effective antiepilepsy drugs, and the use of cannabis and cannabinoid medicines currently seems promising.

Considerable media attention has focused on the use of cannabis to treat a severe form of childhood epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome.164 Dravet strikes very young children with catastrophic results and can be life threatening. Conventional anticonvulsant medications only provide limited management of seizures. Small clinical trials with cannabinoids (including CBD, CBDV, and THCV) for the treatment of seizure disorders are expected to begin in late 2013 in the United States.