Charlotte Figi—the girl whose life-long fight against life-threatening seizures led to the push for legalization of cannabidiol (CBD)—has died. She was 13. According to sources, her death may be related to COVID-19.
 
Suffering from seizures from just three months old, Figi’s condition escalated to almost 300 grand mal seizures a week. Desperate for a solution after exhausting all other avenues, her parents purchased marijuana known as “R4” which was reportedly high in CBD and low in THC. An oil was extracted from it, Charlotte was started on a small dose—and it worked.
 
In 2012, the Figis reached out to the Stanley brothers, siblings who were cultivating a high-CBD, low-THC strain of marijuana. Extracts from those crops were used to treat Charlotte and other seizure patients; the Stanley brothers named that strain Charlotte’s Web (CW) to honor Figi.
 
Figi’s story and the Stanley brothers work on CBD were brought to national attention in a 2013 CNN documentary with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. A year later, US Farm Bill SC7606 defined industrial hemp as containing less than 0.3% THC. The Colorado Department of Agriculture licensed CW as industrial hemp, which allowed for its mass cultivation in the US.
 
The Stanley brothers’ company, Charlotte’s Web, has become a vertically integrated, publicly traded firm selling a range of CBD wellness products. Revenues in 2018 were $70 million in 2018, up to 74% year-over-year. In 2019, revenues topped $94 million. 
 
The CBD market in the US has been projected to top $20 billion market by 2024, according to market research firms.
 
The following is Charlotte’s Web’s memorial published online for Charlotte Figi:
 
“ Charlotte was ten feet tall and carried the world on her shoulders.
Inspiring is a lacking word, as are courageous and vivacious and strong and beautiful.
She was divine.
She grew, cultivated by a community, protected by love, demanding that the world witness her suffering so that they might find a solution. She rose every day, awakening others with her courage, and with that smile that infected your spirit at the cellular level.
The infinite compassion of community members who sacrificed their time, resources, and ideas to tend her garden of love were instrumental in her care, but there was no one more committed than the selfless Paige, both a mother and a warrior, both a human
and an angel. Charlotte’s cause was her family’s cause and created a foundation of plant-based health that breathed life into their daughter, and the countless sons and daughters like her.
Charlotte, then, became everyone’s daughter or sister or friend and enlivened empathy and love from anyone who had the privilege of hearing her story, as millions did. Her story built communities, her need built hope, and her legacy will continue to build harmony. 
To Paige, Matt, Greg, Max, and Chase - we are humbled by your grace, as the fruits of your kindness have fed the world with love.
She was a light that lit the world. She was a little girl who carried us all on her small shoulders.
Her legacy lives in the garden, in the blooming of ideas, in the fragrance of compassion, in the greenery of nurturing us to be better humans in all ways, always.
What began as her story, became the shared story of hundreds of thousands, and the inspiration of many millions more in the journey of their betterment. Charlotte was and will be, the heartbeat of our passion, and the conviction that the dignity and health of a human being is their right.
 
Charlotte, you are the light of our lives.
Thank you for your life, your bravery, and your beautiful soul.
 
We love you, Charlie.
-Joel, Jared, Jesse, Jon, Jordan, Josh, and Austin Stanley”
 
The Stanley family also operates a non-profit organization called the Realm of Caring Foundation, which donates cannabis to both adults and children suffering from a variety of diseases and ailments.

For more on CBD in beauty as reported by Happi, click here.