Does Marijuana Have Medical Benefits? Sitting Down with an Advocate

Bernadette Scarduzio, who lives with a rare neurological disease, argues that medical marijuana has helped normalize her life and has the potential to help reduce opiate overuse in the disabled community.

For Bernadette Scarduzio, living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder (CMT) has been anything but easy. This hereditary disease is known by few, but it affects the nerves that control a person’s muscles. Over time, Ms. Scarduzio’s limbs weakened, causing her to give up her passion of personal training and requiring her to use a scooter for mobility. Despite this, she has become one of the foremost advocates for CMT awareness.

It all began with her movie titled Bernadette, which came out in 2013 and helped to put CMT on the map. Since then, she has advocated for awareness as a staff member of the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation (HNF), an organization offering aid to those with CMT and other related diseases while also funding research. In recent years, Ms. Scarduzio has also been vocal in her support of medical marijuana.

On August 16th, she joined Merion West to discuss CMT, her use of marijuana for therapy, and medical marijuana’s legislative future.

For those who aren’t familiar with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disorder, why don’t we start there? What has your life been like living with CMT?

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder is an inherited, degenerative, progressive neuropathy that affects your peripheral nervous system, which controls your arms, hands, feet, and legs. There are all different types of CMT. It is in the rare community and known as a rare disease.