Baldwin City ? For Ryan Reed, a smile makes his family’s move to Colorado worthwhile.

From left to right: Kathy, Otis and Ryan Reed. The family moved from Baldwin City to Colorado last May so Otis, 3, could receive medical marijuana treatments for his epilepsy.

It’s a smile he wishes he could share with members of the Kansas Legislature this week when he testifies before a House committee about the benefits of the medical marijuana his 3-year-old son has been taking daily since the family moved to Colorado in May 2014. However, under current Kansas law, it’s not possible for him to bring his son with him on the visit to his hometown of Baldwin City.

“As soon as we crossed into Kansas, we could be arrested for drug trafficking,” Reed said. “If we had to take Otis to the hospital for any reason and they found traces of marijuana in him, we could be turned in for abuse and they could take him away from us.”

Desperate to control the as many as 300 seizures their toddler son Otis experienced daily, Ryan and his wife, Kathy, sold their Lawrence home and moved last May to Colorado. Two days after they relocated, they started Otis on a daily regimen of the medical marijuana extract legally available in Colorado known as Charlotte’s Web, which is high in the non-intoxicating cannabidiol but doesn’t produce a high because of its low content of the intoxicating THC.

Nine months after the move, Reed characterizes the results as “bittersweet.” Otis still suffers from hundreds of daily seizures but has made progress.

Otis is developmentally disabled and still cannot talk or walk. But he now verbalizes much more and propels himself with “army crawls” with his arms, including his right arm that he previously kept tucked to his side, Reed said.

“This is the best quality of life he’s ever experienced,” Reed said.

Most meaningful to his parents is his ability to acknowledge their presence. He now makes eye contact, follows his mother and father when they move about and has started sharing his emotions.

“He’s now in preschool in the morning for three hours,” Reed said. “He’ll usually smile when I come in. As a parent, that’s wonderful. That smile can keep me going for days and days. All the time he was on the other medication, he never smiled.”

That’s another positive, Reed said. Since the move, the Reeds have reduced by half the amount of traditional medications Otis takes daily without seeing an increase in seizures. It’s a change that also makes it difficult to determine what is behind Otis’ improvements.

“Some of this may have nothing to do with Charlotte’s Web, but just getting him off the pharmaceuticals,” Reed said. “We’re not sure. One thing we can attribute to the medical marijuana is Otis sleeping better. That started immediately after we started the medical marijuana.”

Before moving to Colorado, Otis would sleep two to three hours before waking with seizures. He now sleeps from five to six hours after his regular 8 p.m. bedtime and sometimes as long as eight hours, Reed said.

The Reeds have connected with others in Colorado’s growing marijuana refugee community of desperate families of similar situations. It’s a heartwarming and heartbreaking experience, Reed said, as he and his wife witness other children respond much more positively to treatment.

“We’re seeing big differences in other children,” he said. “It’s kind of a bummer Otis hasn’t seen as much. They are doing awesome things out here.”

Reed will share that message Tuesday before the Kansas House Health and Human Services Committee as he testifies in support of a bill named for Otis, which Rep. John Wilson, D-Lawrence, has introduced.

His is one of three bills before the Legislature that would allow the use of medical marijuana, Wilson said. His proposed legislation has a much narrower scope and would allow the use of non-intoxicating forms of medical marijuana oil, such as that Otis is given, for the treatment of seizures.

“I think it stands a very good chance of making it out of committee,” Wilson said. “I was very pleased Republican leadership worked with me to get the hearing. I was very pleased to work with leadership to write a bill limited in scope so that it stands a chance of making it through the House and the Senate.

“I can say the other medical marijuana bills out there aren’t going anywhere. There’s just not the political will to pass something like that in Kansas.”

Reed said during his testimony and in one-on-one meetings with lawmakers Monday, he will relate his family’s personal experience, what he has witnessed in Colorado and address misplaced concerns about Charlotte’s Web.

There’s a lot of misconceptions out there,” he said. “People think the kids are smoking it and getting high, but there’s no chance for abuse. It’s basically hemp, something you can buy at the grocery store.”

Regardless of how the Otis bill fares, the momentum is with those advocating for medical marijuana, and Kansas would eventually join the 23 states that have passed medical marijuana legislation, Reed and Wilson said. They point to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s statement of last week that policy should reflect preliminary data showing marijuana can be helpful for certain conditions, and the recent call from the American Academy of Pediatricians for the federal government to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 drug so that the FDA could participate in studies of its medical use.

“The train has left the station,” Reed said. “People can’t ignore the results. I’ve seen it, being out here and seeing kids and families being transformed after they had tried everything else. They’ve found a better quality of life. I don’t know who can argue with that.”