A Colorado Bill Would Require Schools To Store Cannabis-Based Medicines For Student Use. Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Republican from Douglas County, sponsors a bill for cannabis medicine and school children. This is after the Douglass school board refused to let one student, Marley, receive her cannabis-derived medicine from willing teachers.
Marley has been able to take her prescribed medicine regularly while learning at home—keeping her Crohn’s disease more manageable than it’s ever been, however the 15 year old is missing out on one-on-one interactions with teachers and the social aspects of school, like drama club. Her dad makes the point that “School is so much more than just learning and just education", the required isolation means "No friends, no after-school activities" Her parents Sarah and Mark Porter made the difficult decision to pull Marley out of a Douglas County public school in October 2019 and she never went back to school,” -Mark Porter... Newsbreak https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2177219147235/colorado-bill-would-require-schools-to-store-cannabis-based-medicines-for-student-use .
Another student Ben Wann found a way to treat their son Ben’s life-threatening epileptic seizures: a bottle of Charlotte’s Web cannabidiol, or CBD. When a school nurse asked Ben's mom Amber why Ben had stopped having seizures in 2014, and learned about the cannabis-derived medicine, she reported the Wanns for potential child endangerment, Holbert said. “The sheriff and the [district attorney] and the school district and child protection services did what they had to do, and at the end of it, they determined no, no… Giving their son Ben CBD oil was not endangering him, and bringing his seizures to an end certainly wasn’t endangering him,” Holbert told the Education Committee.
Following the investigation, the Wanns were able to keep a cann-asal spray on campus for Ben’s seizures. The Douglas County School District Board of Education however, despicably demanded that his medicine be removed from within the school. To this Holbert says “It pisses me off that my school board would somehow…decide which kid in our school district lives and which dies,”
Colorado passed a law in 2016, Jack's law named for Jack Splitt, a young Coloradan with Cerebral Palsy who was able to gain comfort from Cannabis treatments. Without the cannabis Jack's quality of life significantly diminished and was not able to particiapte in life activities such as attending school. The law made it possible for students to receive Cannabis treatments when appropriate on school grounds, however the school was not able to administer the treatment. With Jack's law, school districts were required to let parents or guardians administer medical cannabis to their children on campus to treat symptoms such as seizures and severe pain. Colorado law has never allowed children to smoke cannabis; rather, medicines containing CBD, THC or both often come in the form of oils, nasal sprays or capsules. And students aren’t legally allowed to keep the medicine on their person, even if they have a prescription.
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In 2008,House Bill 18-1286 became law in Colorado, named another young Coloradan, 9 year old Quintin Lovato, allowed school nurses to administer medical cannabis at school for qualifying medical conditions and with a doctor’s approval. The law did open an “opt-out” clause for districts that didn’t want to participate. The school district in Eagle County allowed him to receive his seizure treatment while at school. Quintin himself reappeared at the Capitol three years after HB-1286’s passage to testify in support of SB-56 where spoke to his academic and athletic accomplishments and that they “Please help push this new bill through so that other kids like me have the opportunity to live their best lives, too,”
The bill wouldn’t force any school personnel to administer the medicine, if they don’t feel comfortable, but it does require school districts to have a policy for the storage of cannabis-based medicine on campus. The policy must allow willing school nurses, teachers or staff to administer the medicine to a student who provides a doctor’s recommendation and dosing instructions.
In addition, SB-56 protects school personnel from having their state-issued licenses or certificates taken away for their part in the administering of the federally prohibited, miraculous earthen substance as well as setting aside required funding for the program to be in compliance
“Anyone who is concerned about this, unfamiliar with it, take time to try to connect with people in your community who rely on cannabis-based medicine — especially kids,” Holbert said. “And what you’ll find is there are next to miraculous things happening, and completely effective medicine can be made from cannabis plants.”
The bill, SB 21 56(https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-056) under consideration would require schools and school districts to have a policy allowing their employees to store and administer medical cannabis recommended for a student by a doctor noting that the science around CBD is emerging, and it has been touted for many benefits for which research has yet to provide verification. But some recent studies support claims that it can be effective, particularly in treating certain epilepsy syndromes.
Rep Holbert, in the recent past has been largely anti cannabis but seems to be changing his tune... “As a person that comes from a community fairly consistent in being opposed to marijuana legalization in Colorado, I’m willing to put my hand up and say I was wrong about cannabis-based medicine,” who is partnering with Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, on SB-56. “I’m perfectly willing to have conversations with constituents, doubters, to say, ‘You’re wrong. You need to meet these people.’”
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