Front Page  »  

Bill allowing medical marijuana at schools passes California Legislature

August 28, 2018

A bill that would allow parents to come to their child’s school to administer a dose of medical marijuana has made its way to California Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. [Cal Coast Times]

SB 1127, authored by state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), passed the state Assembly Monday on a 42-29 vote. It previously passed the Senate on a 32-7 vote.

The bill would allow school districts and county boards of education to decide whether to permit a student’s parent or guardian to administer non-smokable and non-vapable marijuana to their child on campus. The student must be a medical marijuana patient with a doctor’s recommendation in order to receive the cannabis, which could come in forms like oils or capsules.

SB 1127 would prohibit the storage of medical pot on campus. The medical marijuana would have to be brought to campus by the parent or guardian and then removed after the student receives the necessary dose.

If Brown signs the legislation, California would become the eighth state to allow medical marijuana to be administered at schools. Sen. Hill says none of the states that allow the use of medical marijuana at schools have lost federal funding.

“Senate Bill 1127 lifts barriers for students who need medical cannabis to attend school,” Hill said. “This legislation gives these students a better chance to engage in the educational process with other young people in school districts that decide to allow parents to come administer the dose their child requires.”

Hill’s legislation was inspired in part by a South San Francisco High School student who has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and takes medical marijuana to prevent having seizures. Proponents of the bill claim in such cases a child needs to have access to medical pot at school.


Loading...
Subjects:             
Related:


13 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Schools will not permit this if given the choice, which is in the legal language. Schools will not do this until mandated to do so. Even then, Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug, which means a licensed nurse would have to administer this in a school setting. This will cost schools (and thus the taxpayer) more money. I do not think a doctor in California will write a prescription for this because there are no FDA approved dosage guidelines and because it is federally illegal. It will be interesting to see what happens with this legislation in the future..


2

I emailed California Department of Education with following (dtorres@edu.ca.gov):

How will CDE implement SB 1127? Will there be any conflict with the California Senate Bill and Federal Law’s on Cannabis? Will CDE allow parents to bring and administer CBD oils to their children while in school?

Thank You.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXX XXXXX

San Luis Obispo, CA


I also found this:

California Code of Regulations Title V, Article 4.1: Administering Medication to Students or Otherwise Assisting Students in the Administration of Medication During the Regular School Day

IV. Persons Authorized to Administer Medication at School

B. On the basis of these laws and regulations, it is recommended that: 1. Medication be administered at school by the school nurse, other duly qualified supervisors of health, site administrator or designee as allowed by law, the parent or guardian or their designee as allowed by law or LEA policy, a contracted licensed health care professional whose licensure permits administration of the medication, or by the student under specified conditions.

So, if I understand correctly there is a law already in place where a parent can come to school to administer his or her child’s medications. The hurdle will be if they allow it with CBD oil, still recognized as a Schedule 1 drug by the feds’. We’ll see if they’ll respond to my inquiry…


0

You are correct with regard to medications. In CA, a school needs the following for medications to be given at school:


1. A physician’s order with the name of the drug, the dose, how often to be given, etc. Everything but sunblock is technically considered a medication. 

2. If no order is available, a parent can come to school and give a medication, such at Tylenol. Anything legal that is.


CBD and THC are problematic at school for a few reasons:

1. They are federally illegal.

2. No doctor is willing to sit down and write a prescription for these formally. 

3. A drug needs a “labeled” use. Example: Versed is labeled as a benzodiazepine for sedation. It is used often in ORs for procedures like Colonoscopy because really, who wants to be wide awake for that? Labeled uses have clear, predictable guidelines for use as described by the FDA.

4. Off label use- This is when doctors prescribe a drug in a manner that is not described or approved by the FDA to be used in the way the doctor is prescribing it (doctors can legally do this) Like doctors will prescribe medications like Beta blockers which are meant to control heart rate and blood pressure to treat headaches. 

5. CBD and THC has no labeled or off label use. It is a schedule 1 drug, so basically the FDA says it has no accepted medical use and is in fact dangerous.


So, we are asking school officials to be “ok” with kids parents coming to school and giving a kid “medication” that has no MD order, is federally illegal, is reported by the FDA to be dangerous, and because there is no federal labeling staff are supposed to be monitoring for symptoms that we are not sure of because the “drug” hasn’t been studied. Not every school has a nurse on site, so we would be asking cafeteria ladies, PE teachers, classroom teachers, school secretaries to be assessing kids for THC or CBD side effects. OR force school districts to hire nurses at every single school site where kids will be using their medical THC. Because even if parents come to school to give this THC, what research we DO have says we won’t see effects of the medication for 30minutes to 2 hours after. So, does the parent stay at school the whole time? How will we be sure how much THC is too much when we don’t know how to dose children?


These are tough questions, and the public already thinks schools are wasting money. That’s fine I guess if people think that… but then quit asking them to do all this medical stuff. I personally think if we can hammer down the legal stuff, we should try it….but the taxpayer would need to be willing to pay for a nurse at each and every school site that wants to try out all this alternative stuff. Just some thoughts to ponder….


0

I’ll respond to you if and when CDE responds to me, okay. I don’t have your expertise and or knowledge and don’t think I could respond with any type of knowledge based opinion.

Hey, why don’t you ask CDE as a nurse? You’d probably garner a response where some poor shmo like me wouldn’t, and if you do you can post their reply here for all to see.


0

– “2. No doctor is willing to sit down and write a prescription for these formally.” –

Why not? And what does “formally” mean? Are you saying they will only prescribe it “informally”? Considering all physicians in California are allowed to prescribe medical marijuana for only very specific medical conditions, one of which is seizures, it seams pretty formal to me. No, patients aren’t getting their ‘scripts filled at the local pharmacy but they are getting them filled from licensed MM dispensaries controlled by the state.

I’ve also been reading up on CBD oil (or full spectrum CBD) vs Epidiolex (or isolated cannabinoid), and the difference is pretty minimal. Epidiolex is 98% pure CBD oil, removing only the plant-based compounds, Phytonutrients (which are rich in antioxidants and help in absorbing other nutrients), and is concentrated. Other than that, same-same. It’s like taking a vitamin C supplement vs eating an orange, eating the orange has other benefits other than vitamin C that the supplement doesn’t because they’ve been removed to “purify” them.

– “… what research we DO have says we won’t see effects of the medication for 30minutes to 2 hours after.” –

From what I’ve read CBD oils are used for maintenance and not for acute symptoms of epilepsy (same as Epidiolex) and or autism, so there is no “wait time” for it effects. While most parents will probably form their child’s maintenance regiment around school hours some can’t, so now they can incorporate their maintenance schedule with school time.

The legalities will have to work themselves out, and what’s not to think that the feds’ will choose to ignore them as they are currently doing with dispensaries, especially with the benefits?

The U.S., and it’s short term minimal money invested philosophy on research and development, have missed the boat, again, to a foreign based company willing to invest in the controversial to make boat loads of money from the American public. GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK based company, the maker of Epidiolex, stands to make huge profits for its sales as the yearly cost to end users will be anywhere from $25,000 to $32,000 annually. That cost? Is some’s yearly income, and until it proves itself in the American market place no insurance company will offset that cost to the consumer, so in reality Epidiolex will only be fiscally viable to a select few.


0

Doctors won’t formally prescribe marijuana or cbd, because 1) it is federally illegal and 2) it is a schedule 1 drug, which basically says it is bad and if a doctor prescribes it they are bad. Doctors might TELL a patient “sure you can try cbd and see if it helps you” but they will say “I can’t prescribe THC because it is federally illegal.” The medical recommendations/ 215 cards are being given by Medical Marijuana (MMJ) doctors. One doctor I know of who does this was an orthopedic surgeon who retired and now does recommendations. He isn’t technically prescribing, he is saying medical cannabis is a therapy he is recommending a patient to be able to do legally due to a medical condition. He also isn’t telling a patient how much cannabis to use and how often.


CBD oil has no psychoactive effects, so there isn’t anything to immediately look for in general. For THC there are psychoactive effects. There is a “sweet spot” for THC dosing. Too little=no effect, Too much=paranoia, feeling like you’re gonna die, etc. Ingestible THC takes 30 minutes to 2 hours to see the effects. That’s what I meant. And because cannabis isn’t tested on children (or adults for that matter), we don’t know how they will respond.


I am not sure how I feel about this bill, so I am just sitting back and thinking about it all. This might sound like a good idea, but there are a lot of factors regarding child safety, school liability, taxpayer cost etc that concern me.


0

Can you imagine the trade that will go on at lunch. It used to be what do you have for my Hostess Pie, now it’ll be what to you have for my “Brownies”……….


1

If only you had read the article or the legislation, you would see your hyperbole fantasy is just that.



I’m sure fox news has the real deal on this /s


-5

humor, try it once in awhile……


2

Plenty of conservatives believe the most ridiculous things.


Poe’s law

Confusion of parody and sincere expression


Poe’s law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied views.


The original statement of the adage, by Nathan Poe, was:


Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.


-2

And this is why we need authentic Medical Doctors writing the prescriptions and pharmacies filling the orders. Who pays the lawsuits when there is an incident, hopefully the parents,


1

Please, describe an “authentic medical doctor” (this is gonna be good)? Or is it you think any doctor recognizing the benefits that cannabis provides his or her patients and prescribes it is not “authentic”? Are those doctors, those “pill pushing” doctors, that have been complicant in the deaths of thousands by misprescribing and or over prescribing opiates any more or any less “authentic”? And what about those pharmacies that have been complicit with those doctors, are they any less or any more “authentic” just because it’s a “accepted” drug manufactured by a recognized pharmaceutical company and not from a cannabis dispensary?

And the “incident” thing? What is that? What exactly is it you’re referring to as this is not cannabis that you get high on nor can you overdose from?

Doctors are prescribing and pharmacies are already filling orders for a cannabis based drug, Epidiolex, it came about just a few months ago, it is a treatment for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. So, are those doctors and pharmacies considered any more or any less “authentic” to you?

Until Epidiolex becomes affordable to the average parent(s) that typically have children with these rare forms of epilepsy the cannabis oil and or oil pills that are CBD (look that one up) and provided at dispensaries are their best affordable option (right now, Epidiolex is about $2,500.00 a month, pure CBD oil from a dispensary? About $70.00 a month, and from all indications they both have the same results, all the parent has to do is follow proper dosage, just like with Epidiolex).

Myself, and the rest of the cannabis world, both recreational and medical users, dread the day big pharm’ gets ahold of cannabis, they’ll make it so expensive us middle income and low income users won’t be able to afford it.


1

Normalization continuing… The same thing that is done with any other prescription drug, even dangerous ones, so why not with one that causes no harm while offering some very good results for kids. And no, this type of cannabis isn’t gonna have our kids runnin’ around school high, nope! It’ll probably translate into those kids with autism and epilepsy, the main medical use of cannabis for kids, to better function at school while increasing their attendance. WIN-WIN!


7