By now we’ve all seen probably dozens, if not hundreds, of stories about children who live with life-threatening or debilitating conditions who have found relief and a better quality of life through medical marijuana. Whether it’s an epileptic who is now seizure free or an autistic child who is becoming more aware each and every day, the point is these children’s lives were changed and even saved, all because of medical marijuana.
So if these children are seeing such vast improvements on this medicine isn’t it only fair that they have access to this medicine during the school day? If the child missing a dose of cannabis oil could be the difference between no seizure and even just one, why would you expect the child to go without it?
Unfortunately this is still very much a problem almost everywhere in our country. Only two states have so far created laws to allow medical marijuana at school, Colorado and New Jersey – and surprisingly the only state with schools allowing this medicine is New Jersey.
In Colorado, the previous measure was called “Jack’s Bill” and it was part of a larger bill that regulated different aspects of the marijuana industry. This measure allowed school districts to make the decision to allow students to use medical marijuana on campus.
It’s been a year now and nothing has changed – not a single school district has changed their policies. Their reasoning is fear of losing federal funding – so this time around a new measure will ensure that they either allow medical marijuana or lose state funding.
The proposed measure is tentatively being called “Jack’s Bill Part 2” and it would require all schools to allow certain forms of medical marijuana to be administered during the school day on campus. Parents or caregivers would be the ones to administer the medicine, never the children themselves and faculty, even nurses, will not be required to give the dose themselves if they are not comfortable with it.
If this new measure is brought into law, any schools who were not in compliance with the new law would be subject to lose state funds raised through marijuana taxes. A large portion of the tax money made from recreational sales is designated to go towards construction of the schools – the same schools who are denying children the right to this medicine.
“They’ve been able to make this work in the state of NJ without any problem, and one of the things NJ said is, ‘If you can’t provide services for these kids, you risk losing state funding,'” Singer said. “We have a pot of money from pot and maybe the schools won’t be able to receive those marijuana dollars for school construction. That can go to schools actually providing services for kids.”
Seeing this bill pass would help a tremendous number of children receive an education that they would not otherwise have the opportunity to get. These children are already being given a better life with the use of medical marijuana – so why limit their potential by keeping them out of schools?
The bill will be filed by the end of the week – hopefully it won’t be much longer before these much deserving young minds can once again enjoy the same educational rights as children who don’t require marijuana to live a functional life.
