(WWJ) – Tens of thousands of K-12 students in Michigan go to the school office every single day to take medication.
But what about students with medical marijuana cards who rely on cannabis medications for their health? Should they be able to do the same?
As WWJ’s Zach Clark learns on a new Daily J podcast, aside from the court of public opinion, that question raises some complex legal issues.
Amy Carter of Burton, a suburb of Flint, has a child with ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. As a young boy, she says Jayden was “very violent and aggressive.”
After years of police visits, hospitalizations and warnings from Child Protective Services that her parental rights could be terminated, Carter told Clark on The Daily J that she turned to medical marijuana.
“I had heard of medical marijuana, that it could be possibly something to look into. But when they were threatening to take my rights away, I decided to get him his card. I had nothing to lose,” she said. “It ended up calming his aggression. He was a completely different kid. It slowed his brain down. He was able to process things and he was able to communicate better.”
Using cannabis to treat a wide range of medical conditions – from upset stomachs to glaucoma to epilepsy and chronic pain – is not new. Fifteen years after medical marijuana was legalized in Michigan, Carter wants Jayden to be able to take his medical marijuana in school.
And at least two Michigan lawmakers agree. Democratic Reps. Dylan Wegela and Jimmy Wilson are sponsoring legislation that would make it a possibility.
“Right now you can’t have this type of controlled substance in the schools, so they would have to check them out of school, take them 1,000 feet away, administer the medication and then bring them back to school and check them in,” Wilson said.
That’s a big disruption to school. Wilson says the legislation – named Jayden’s law after Carter’s son – would allow parents to bring non-smokable marijuana medications to school and have them locked away in the office, as many do with other medications.
But Robert McCann, the Director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, says the organization comprised of school superintendents from Southeast Michigan has “more questions than probably even the public has about this.
“Allowing kids to use marijuana on school grounds raises a lot of legal questions for us,” he said. “Marijuana is legal for adults in Michigan under the constitution, but it is still a controlled substance under federal law and schools as a recipient of federal money, that raises some pretty serious concerns for us.”
Rep. Wilson says other states, including Illinois, have implemented similar laws without running into any such issues.
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