AUGUSTA — Medical marijuana advocates urged their fellow patients and caregivers at a medical marijuana trade show Sunday to stand up for their rights and fight against the stigma of their medicine. Some of them say medical pot is the only thing that stops their children’s seizures. Others credit it with making their own lives better by allowing them to stop taking harder pharmaceutical drugs,

Meanwhile a panel of lawyers at Home Grown Maine, the trade show put on at the Augusta Civic Center by Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine Trade Association, advised attendees with grow operations that if the police come around asking questions, to keep quiet and not let them in without a warrant.

New England Alternative Care exhibits marijuana plants at the Home Grown Maine medical marijuana trade show at the Augusta Civic Center on Sunday. Organizers expected 3,000 to 4,000 people to attend the two-day event. Jeff Pouland/Kennebec Journal

Susan Meehan, whose late daughter, Cyndimae, may have been the first child in the world to attend school while receiving medical marijuana after state legislation passed last year, said her daughter had far fewer seizures after she started administering it to her.

The Meehan family moved to Maine from Connecticut so Cyndimae could use medical marijuana, Meehan said while speaking as part of a panel on epilepsy and children Sunday. Cyndimae, who died in March, had Dravet syndrome epilepsy that is characterized by seizures that don’t respond to typical medications. Her seizures were controlled and reduced to once or twice a week instead of hundreds a day when she was given marijuana-based tinctures, which her mother made and administered with a syringe.

Cyndimae attended 23 days of school in Augusta this year, her mother said, something she never could have done without having the drug administered to her in school.

She and other panelists urged everyone to contact legislators and speak out to end the stigma associated with marijuana.

Parents 4 Pot activist Jill Osborn of Massachusetts said she tried every pharmaceutical option to stop the seizures of her daughter, Haley, without success. She advocates for new pediatric regulations to allow children to be treated with medical marijuana.

“I’m in this because there is a big picture here. It isn’t just my daughter, or your daughter. It is the big picture of medical cannabis. That’s why we continue to fight,” Osborn said. “It is still stigmatized, so people are afraid to talk with their doctor. Don’t be. Speak to them. Share your knowledge so you can get them on board with your treatment. Knowledge is power.”

A panel of lawyers discussed legal issues surrounding medical marijuana, which is legal in Maine but still illegal under federal law.

“If, God forbid, the police visit you, do not cooperate,” said Maine attorney Leonard Sharon in advice echoed by the panel’s other three lawyers. “If they have a search warrant, let them in to the area specified on the warrant. Do not talk to them, no matter if they say it will help you. The only thing (talking) does is give them more evidence. … Shut up.”

Organizers expected 3,000 to 4,000 people to attend the fifth annual trade show before its close Sunday, up from last year’s 2,500 attendees, according to Catherine Lewis, director of education and a board member of Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine. The two-day show was open to the public.

Just outside the civic center entrance, an enclosed tent was set up where card-carrying patients could use vaporizers to inhale marijuana. Smoking is prohibited on the grounds. The “vape tent” was so popular Saturday that people had to wait to take their turn, Lewis said.

Vendors came from as far away as the United Kingdom for the event.

Mark Doherty, director of sales in the eastern region for urban-gro, which offers lighting, pest management, irrigation and other systems used to help grow marijuana, came from upstate New York to pitch his company’s services and products.

He said Maine, with its many small-scale growers, is a “terrific” market for the direct-sales company, and he had been able to meet with established clients and potential new customers. He said the company only provides services to clients who are growing legally.

Longtime Augusta resident and musician Dave Archibald, well-known for his previous band, Archie and Friends, said health problems forced him to use pharmaceutical drugs including oxycodone and hydrocodone.

He quit those drugs in favor of medical marijuana several years ago and said his life has improved. He said he doesn’t need painkillers any more, and he enjoys growing his own marijuana, which he takes to Gorham-based SJR Labs, which turns the marijuana into a liquid extract that can be vaporized and inhaled.

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