Sebastien Cotte – Cannabis Education Seminar

Sebastien’s Backstory

We were first introduced to Sebastien Cotte by our friend Janie Maedler at the 2018 Cannabis Science Conference in Portland. The story of Sebastien’s son Jagger, and the lengths to which his family has journeyed to help him, is truly remarkable. Jagger suffers from a rare, terminal mitochondrial disease called Leigh syndrome. In 2014, frustrated with the treatment options available in their home state of Georgia, Sebastien and his wife Annett decided to become medical refugees in their own country. They moved to Colorado, which at that time was one of few states allowing legal access to medical cannabis oil. At the time of his diagnosis, the Cotte’s had been told that Jagger would not live to see his fourth birthday — Jagger is now nine years old! Read more of the details of Jagger’s story at the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation website.

To help boost awareness for this educational event within our community, we booked Sebastien on local NPR station WOSU. You can hear Sebastien in his own words by listening to Sebastien’s interview with host Ann Fisher here. Everything was coming together…but just as Sebastien was about to board his flight from Atlanta, he realized he had become ill with the flu and was forced to cancel his flight at the last moment!

Making the Seminar Happen

Sebastien is actively involved in several nonprofit organizations, including the medical cannnabis advocacy Georgia’s Hope. Through some stroke of good karma, one of Sebastien’s colleagues and co-founders of Georgia’s Hope, Blaine Cloud, just happened to be in Columbus the same weekend as our event!

Blaine graciously agreed to present Sebastien’s content to our audience. One of the more interesting segments of the presentation outlined some of the latest findings on specific cannabinoids beyond THC and CBD. For example, Blaine explained how both CBG and CBN have been found to help with symptoms of Glaucoma — as well as aid in better sleep. Or CBC, which has been found to inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.

The event wrapped with a lively Q&A session with our expert panelists, including certifying physicians and cannabis educators. We would like to thank everyone who helped make this event a success, especially Mr. Blaine Cloud for acting as impromptu keynote speaker, as well as our host venue, Seventh Son Brewing.

Event panelists (from left to right): Dr. Bridget Williams – Green Harvest Health, Audra Sparks – LeafMedic, Emilie Ramach – Compassionate Alternatives, Dr. Karen Korn – LeafMedic, Blaine Cloud – Georgia’s Hope, Dr. Faisal Rahman