Schools in Colorado would be required to allow parents to provide medical marijuana treatment to their children on school grounds under a bill that won approval in a state legislative committee Monday.
House Bill 1373 gives school districts the authority to write policies limiting where on campus the treatment could take place or what forms of cannabis can be administered. If the district fails to create a policy, parents or private caregivers would have no limitations on where they could administer the treatment, said state Rep. Jonathan Singer, a Longmont Democrat who is the bill’s sponsor.
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The bill passed 10-3 in the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee.
“It forces a conversation,” Singer said of his bill’s mandate, “that we were hoping would be a voluntary conversation.”
Last year, lawmakers passed a bill allowing schools to create policies permitting student use of medical marijuana. The bill was championed by parents of severely disabled children who treat their conditions with cannabis — both in non-psychoactive preparations and in forms containing THC.
But none of Colorado’s 178 school districts have yet created such a policy, though one is considering it. School districts said they worry about losing federal funding and oppose the current bill’s mandate.
