Among other proposed changes to marijuana law in Washington state, a bill has been introduced that would allow medical marijuana to be administered to a child on school grounds, on buses or at school sponsored events. The passing of this bill would greatly improve the quality of education received by a number of pediatric patients who rely on medical cannabis in order to manage conditions like epilepsy and autism.
Allowing children to use medical marijuana has been a rather controversial subject, but it has become increasingly accepted as more and more studies and success stories show children with epilepsy, cancer and autism – among other conditions – find a better quality of life through cannabis therapy. In many cases, it only takes a small amount of cannabis oil administered throughout the day for the herb to make a huge impact on these young lives.
In 2015, New Jersey Governor Christie signed a bill that allowed medical marijuana to be administered on school grounds and school busses by a child’s parent, guardian or legal caregiver. Since Christie is not exactly a supporter of marijuana in general and had no intention of expanding the state’s medical marijuana program (which was already in place when he took office) this was a surprising, but very welcomed, move – and since then Colorado followed suit with a similar law.
In New Jersey it wasn’t long before a school made the bold decision to be the first to allow medical marijuana on their campus, but Colorado hasn’t seen quite as much success. Even a year after the bill was passed there were still many schools trying to decide whether or not it would be safe to allow this sort of medicine to be given at school – even if it must be given by a parent or caregiver, not the school staff. Denver even proposed a bill that would require schools to allow students to use medical marijuana, or face losing the funding that comes from legal tax revenue.
In Washington, if the bill were to pass, it would no longer give individual schools and districts the right to decide whether or not to allow medical marijuana. Instead it would require them to allow it as long as there was a parent or legal caregiver there to administer the medicine. Schools would be able to decide on where medical marijuana will be allowed to be given – so many schools will likely find a private room where the medicine could be administered.
If this bill passes, it would be a great improvement to the medical marijuana program in the state and it would give tons of children the opportunity to get the most out of their education. No one should be denied that opportunity, regardless of what sort of medicine they need in order to be there each day. Hopefully this will become a trend in most, if not all, states that allow children to use medical marijuana.
