Single mum Lizzie Macquarie is forced to watch her daughter Lillian, 8, endure more than 60 seizures a day.

But in a cruel twist, she fears her child could be taken off her if she uses the very medicine which could save her life.

Specially formulated cannabis oil, which has an ultra-low level of the drug’s psychoactive ingredient, THC, has proven highly effective in treating children with intractable epilepsy.

The state government this month announced clinical trials into medical marijuana in what is expected to be a forerunner to legalisation of the drug for the terminally ill.

No date, however, has been set for trials of the drug for epileptic children, leaving parents like Ms Macquarie in a holding pattern.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” she said.

“This isn’t pot as people know it; we’re not asking kids to light up joints.

“All the signs we’ve seen with other children is that this would reduce her seizures or get rid of them entirely.

“Traditional medicine hasn’t worked and has serious side effects.

“How can something natural be worst than something man-made.”

She said the condition had a profound effect on her daughter, making her life a carousel of doctor’s appointments and hospital visits and forcing her to be under constant supervision at school and home.

“Her short-term memory is non-existent because of all the damage the seizures have done to her brain,” Ms Macquarie said. “Although most of her seizures are only small, it’s hard watching your child’s eyes roll and head fall back all the time. I know cannabis oil would greatly improve her life but the law says I can’t do it and as a single mum, I can’t afford a drugs charge.”

An underground network of Australian parents is using cannabis tinctures to treat children, with remarkable results.

Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace, and their severely epileptic son Cooper, are among those human faces of a debate that has captured the attention of the nation.

Doctors thought Cooper, 3, would die after he contracted bacterial meningitis at four weeks old, leaving him with severe brain damage, cerebral abscesses, epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

In desperation, the family began administering cannabis oil to treat Cooper. The results were stunning.

Cooper went from having an average of a seizure a minute to no seizures at all.

“This is a legitimate treatment,” Mrs Batten said.

Originally published as Last hope by the Daily Advertiser.