After tough fight, the wait goes on-medical marijuana

Benjamin Oreskes

Kathy Annable stood next to a state trooper who was guarding the glass doors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's offices. She and other advocates stared at their cellphones watching a livecast of the news conference that was taking place a few dozen yards away.

Just down the corridor, Cuomo was announcing an agreement to create a system to grow and distribute medical marijuana. Annable's 11-year-old daughter Kaylie, who suffers from seizures caused by a rare condition called Aicardi Syndrome, sat in a wheelchair next to her.

Then Kaylie began to spasm, and her mom knew it was bad. Annable recognized the onset of what she called a "respiratory hold" — as if the girl had taken a deep breath and couldn't exhale.

"It becomes a cycle where she'll just keep seizing and seizing and seizing," said Annable, from Syracuse. "It just becomes more life-threatening, and I can't tell if she's going to make it through or not."

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