The Palm Beach County School District is considering a policy that would allow students to be given medical marijuana at school.
In a 12 News report, a parent named Charles Homer remarked, “I think it’s needed. I honestly think it is.” Homer has to give his autistic son Ian medical marijuana oil drops under his tongue twice a day.
“It has been a life-changer for him in the school atmosphere, it really has,” Homer said. “It keeps him calmer. I’m able to, when he does have an episode or a meltdown, I’m able to calm him down much quicker.”
Ian attends Mountaineer’s School of Autism in West Palm Beach, a private school where Homer works as a teacher’s assistant.
Under the proposed policy being considered, medical marijuana can be given to a student during the school day by “a primary caregiver 21 years of age or older.”
“School nurses or health care personnel or school administration staff are not allowed” to administer or store medical marijuana at school. “A parent or caregiver is responsible for safely administering and transporting the medication to and from school each day.”
“It’s a long time comin’. There’s been a stigma about medical marijuana for so long,”
Homer said. “I don’t see a downside at all in it, because it’s needed. It is needed.”
CBS12 News has reported that Jeff Kadel, executive director of the Palm Beach County Substance Awareness Coalition is not on board.
“Fundamentally, we oppose this,” he said. “By making it available to kids at school, all you’re doing is promoting the idea that medical marijuana is a form of medicine when there’s no research to support that. But voters in Florida approved making medical marijuana legal, so what are the schools supposed to do? They have to do something.”
