Mighty Flower
How Cannabis Saved My Son
Cannabis is a viable and valuable medical tool, argues Mighty Flower, a calm and scientifically fortified treatise on the medical uses of the plant.
Research scientist Annabelle Manalo-Morgan’s memoir–cum–medical testimonial Mighty Flower credits cannabis with sparing her newborn son from seizures, heavy medication, and a subdued life.
Two days after his birth, Manalo-Morgan’s son had a stroke; a series of uncontrollable seizures followed. When known treatments failed, he was subjected to an operation that removed 40 percent of his brain. Between the surgery and the “fog of medication,” he became an unresponsive infant set to live a challenging life.
But Manalo-Morgan was not content with her son’s prognosis. She developed a pure form of CBD oil to treat her child in place of the numerous drugs that had been prescribed to him. Asserting that CBD succeeded in breaking him out of his fugue, enabling him to have a normal childhood, her book then covers the expansive research into cannabis that she undertook.
With this human backing, the book sets out to explain CBD treatments in depth, arguing that it’s vital that the medical and scientific communities explore cannabis’s uses further. Indeed, the book approaches science as an evolutionary process that’s dependent on increasing understanding of the natural world—all while maintaining its human touch via its inclusion of personal photographs depicting Manalo-Morgan’s growing son and other pivotal moments in her family’s story.
Couching its scientific research within the intimate, compassionate example of Manalo-Morgan’s family’s own struggles, this passionate text advocates for cannabis on multiple levels. It discusses cannabis’s medicinal applications alongside a concise history of its uses worldwide. Its explanations of how cannabis affects the body and of how it can be studied and used to address a gamut of medical issues are accessible. The result is a compelling treatise on cannabis that looks ahead to its future applications.
There are ample footnotes that indicate the depth of research behind this material. Nonetheless, the book is calibrated for the broadest possible audience: its scientific and medical concepts are explained in through and illustrative terms throughout. By the book’s end, cannabis’s importance has been compellingly examined and supported by research—a package that’s further enlivened by Manalo-Morgan’s powerful personal narrative.
Undergirded by the moving example of a woman’s evolution toward medicine and motherhood, Mighty Flower is a calm, compelling, and scientifically fortified treatise on the medical uses of cannabis.
Reviewed by
John M. Murray
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
