Medical Cannabis One Step Closer To Being Administered At California Schools
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Students who rely on medical cannabis in order to function may be one step closer to being able to take cannabis at school.
The California State Senate on Thursday passed SB 223, also known as "Jojo's Act", named for a South San Francisco teen who has a severe form of epilepsy, and, before taking cannabis to quell his seizures, suffered as many as 50 per day.
Despite medical cannabis being permitted in California, no cannabis of any kind is allowed within 1,000 feet of a school. Currently, parents of students taking medical cannabis must remove their children from class, bring them 1,000 feet away from school, give them the dose, then return them to school.
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According to a statement from State Sen. Jerry Hill's office, "JoJo's Act" would allow K-12 school district boards, County Board of Education, and charter schools' governing boards to choose whether to allow a student's parent or guardian to administer medical cannabis to the child on campus, under these conditions.
- The student is a "qualified" patient with a valid written medical recommendation for medical cannabis and the student's parent or guardian has to provide a copy of the recommendation to the school to keep on file.
- The student's medical cannabis is in a non-smokable and nonvapable form.
- Cannabis cannot be stored on campus.
- The parent or guardian must sign in when coming on campus to administer cannabis to the student and must not disrupt the educational environment or expose other students to the cannabis.
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SB 223 is not a mandate. School districts counties and charter schools' governing boards can opt-out for any reason, including to avoid losing federal funding.
And earlier version of the act, SB 1127, was vetoed by Governor Brown last year. Senator Jerry Hill introduced SB 233 earlier this year.
