It was just last year when the first school in the country allowed a student to use medical marijuana on campus. That took place in New Jersey – a state with one of the most restrictive medical marijuana policies in the country; and yet, in Colorado they passed a bill last year to allow medical marijuana in schools and in all this time not a single school has officially come forward to allow medical marijuana.
As it stands now, children who are patients of medical marijuana treatments must leave campus if they require a dose during school hours. Actually, at Sand Creek High School in Falcon, Colorado, a student was suspended because his mom accidentally left his marijuana capsules in his yogurt for lunch, which was the incident that inspired the bill in the first place.
Well, after much longer than anyone wanted to wait, there are two rays of hope for students in need of medical marijuana treatments throughout the day. The first is that District 49 (where Sand Creek High is located) is considering being the first school to adopt such a policy. They are having open discussions on their website, social media pages and will hear people at a school board hearing before a final vote on the matter is had.
The other possibility to push things forward is a bill that has already been introduced, but not yet passed, which would require that schools allow medical marijuana on campus or face losing out on state funding. Considering a large portion of marijuana tax revenue is going to funding schools, it only seems fair that those schools allow students to have the option to take the medicine that they need in order to learn.
“There are medications in our schools right now. Students take things for seizures, asthma, ADHD, and those are done in a very regulated and controlled way. This would be done in the same manner,” said D-49 spokesman Matt Meister.
Currently, schools have the right to adopt a policy that allows a patient’s parent, a designated caregiver, or the school nurse to give the child their dose of medicine. However, due to health concerns only non-smokable forms of marijuana are allowed, including capsules, tinctures, oils and edibles. It also does not cover THC patches, which offer extended release, mainly for fear that another child will get ahold of it.
Hopefully things go well for District 49 and they will be able to offer all students the education they deserve and the medication they need, without having to make the decision on which is more important. Every child should have the same opportunities to learn, even if the medicine that keeps them going is a little bit different than most are used to.
