Charlotte Figi was a Colorado girl who helped normalize medical cannabis and CBD as she used it to relieve her Dravet syndrome, a catastrophic form of epilepsy.
- Died: April 7, 2020 (Who else died on April 7?)
- Details of death: Died of complications of suspected COVID-19 coronavirus at the age of 13.
- We invite you to share condolences for Charlotte Figi in our Guest Book.
She jumpstarted a movement
Figi had her first seizure when she was just three months old, and she was in a wheelchair by age five. Suffering hundreds of grand mal seizures every week and barely able to talk, Figi was not expected to live past age eight. But her mother sought out alternative treatments for her and found that a strain of low-THC, high-CBD cannabis brought her seizures under control. Experiencing just one or two seizures a month when she used CBD, Charlotte was able to walk, talk, and play like other children.
The strain of cannabis Figi used was named after her — Charlotte’s Web — and she became the face of the CBD movement when Dr. Sanjay Gupta profiled her in the 2013 documentary “Weed.” Figi’s story helped change negative perceptions of medical cannabis and CBD. Several states passed “Charlotte’s Web laws” legalizing CBD and/or medical cannabis, and in 2018, the first prescription drug to use CBD for treating epilepsy in children was approved.
What people said about her
Full obituary: The Gazette
