Colorado Bill Allows Parents to Give Medical Marijuana Patch to Students in School

A bill passed by the Colorado legislature this week would allow parents or caregivers, with a doctor’s note, to come into schools to administer marijuana to their children in the form of a patch. The measure awaits the governor’s signature, Fox News reports.

If signed into law, it would become the first such measure in the nation, the article notes. The law is designed to allow schoolchildren in Colorado with conditions such as epilepsy to take low doses of medical marijuana through a patch.

“We allow children to take all sorts of psychotropic medications, whether it’s Ritalin or opiate painkillers, under supervised circumstances. We should do the same here,” said bill sponsor Representative Jonathan Singer.

The bill is known as “Jack’s Amendment,” which was inspired by a 14-year-old boy whose personal nurse was reprimanded at his school for putting a medical marijuana patch on the boy’s arm. Jack’s doctor prescribed the patch to help his spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and dystonia, a movement disorder in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The family was told never to return to school with the patch again.

“Jack’s Amendment will assure that children don’t have to choose between going to school and taking their medicine,” Singer said.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has 30 days to sign or reject the bill. A spokeswoman for the governor told Fox News he plans to sign the bill.