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A District Judge, the Illinois Attorney General's office, and Schaumburg School District 54 have agreed to exempt an 11-year-old from an Illinois law prohibiting medically prescribed cannabis at schools:
In a decision that may have sweeping effects, a judge has allowed an 11-year-old Illinois girl to use medical marijuana at school.
Medical marijuana is legal in Illinois, and it is against current law for students to use it in school or have school nurses administer it. Now, Ashley Surin is the sole exemption. She overcame a leukemia diagnosis at 2 years old with extensive chemotherapy, but some of her treatments eventually led to having semi regular seizures. Her mother, Maureen Surin, told NPR that since starting medical marijuana treatment, her seizures have immensely declined in number. "We're amazed with her progress," Surin said.
Her parents filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday against Schaumburg School District 54 and the State of Illinois, claiming that the state's ban on taking the drug at school violates the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). On Friday, a judge ruled in their favor after hearing from the school district, which reportedly had concerns that its employees may be subject to legal penalties for helping Ashley with her medications.
"What people seem to misunderstand here is that medical marijuana is a prescription like any other drug," [the family's attorney, Steven Glink, said]. "Prohibiting it in school would be the same as prohibiting other medications such as Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta."
A more permanent solution could be necessary (archive):
At a hearing in federal court in Chicago to consider the issue, Illinois Assistant Attorney General Thomas Ioppolo said that his office was willing to let school employees dispense the medication without prosecution. But U.S. Judge John Robert Blakey pointed out that officials would have to address the state law prohibition on possession or use of marijuana at school. For the judge to rule on the issue, he said, he would also need to find some legal basis to do so. The court case was continued until Friday, Jan. 19, for the attorney general's office to return with its legal assessment. But a court ruling may be unnecessary, Glink said, if school and state officials and lawmakers can resolve the matter on their own.
School district attorney Darcy Kriha said the case could benefit many children beyond Ashley, if school employees are protected from prosecution or license penalties for participating. School access is not the only issue, Maureen Surin said. Ashley wants to go to Disney World in Florida, but also can't get her medicine when she crosses state lines, Surin added.
Also at USA Today and NBC Chicago.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday January 15 2018, @10:38PM (12 children)
I assume she isn't smoking it, that would be a bit odd since you have to be 21 to legally smoke tobacco in Illinois, as far as I know, so one would assume weed would be the same. So it's probably in pill or eatable form? If she gets it via the school nurse I'm not sure there is an actual problem, that is unless she is sitting stoned in school all day -- in which case being in school would probably be quite pointless. Also she can't have it herself due to "easy" access for other students -- that doesn't have the medical exemption (even tho I doubt that stops most kids from getting it if they want to, perhaps not at age 11 but then what do I know -- perhaps all kids are doing it these days).
So in some regard I'd be more worried about it being easy access to other kids then for the employees at school. After all if they are now allowing legal medical cannabis in the state and all the paperwork is in order etc I don't see why a school nurse shouldn't be able to administer that as needed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 15 2018, @10:47PM (9 children)
I'm pretty sure that in the absence of a prescription on file for the student, school nurses can only hand out over-the-counter meds or use life saving meds (like an EpiPen or Naloxone [nytimes.com]). You might even need a parental consent form to hand out 2 aspirin.
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday January 15 2018, @10:55PM (7 children)
I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be an issue here since her parents seem to be on board, so I assume they would sign any required paperwork for their kid to get a patch or some oil applied.
I was also left wondering about the Disneyland vs world. Can't she just go to Disneyland instead? They have (medical) weed now in California without questions, or is it just not transferable from state to state? Florida seems to have it to, but you need a doctors recommendation. Or is the issue that she might cross, or fly over, a few states that won't allow it? Perhaps its Disney that doesnt like their guests to walk around the park on drugs? It might get trippy with all the giant mice and such.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 15 2018, @11:06PM (3 children)
WTF did you mean by this:
Are you worried about kids stealing the medication from other kids?
Kids already bring cannabis into schools. Some more than others.
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 16 2018, @12:04AM (2 children)
I think it was quite clear. You even managed to pick it up. So what was the question again?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 16 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)
What drugs can you sell me?
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 16 2018, @12:17AM
I can hook you up with some dried elk poop, it drives the Japanese tourists nuts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by archfeld on Monday January 15 2018, @11:31PM (2 children)
Crossing state lines, even between permissive states makes it a federal crime. With the US Attorney General making noises about going back into the business of violating state sovereignty issues even when the states in question don't want Federal 'help' the schools which accept federal $$$ may find them selves in a no-win situation.
https://www.apnews.com/19f6bfec15a74733b40eaf0ff9162bfa [apnews.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 16 2018, @12:14AM (1 child)
As I suspected then. I do wonder when this will start to become a real issue as more and more states are allowing cannabis for medical or recreational usage. I don't see any of them going back on that any time soon. Eventually it will become unbearable when the states allow something and then at the same time the federal level deem it illegal. Won't it pose a real issue of something being both legal and illegal at the same time depending on whom (or what level of government) you ask? Citizens paying taxes on a local and state level to approve of something and then paying more taxes on a federal level to be against it. That should be fun, and interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 16 2018, @07:32AM
Maybe the states also tell the Feds that if they don't get their slice of the pie, they will start telling the citizens of their state that they are a "sanctuary" state and no Federal tax needs to be paid there, said State taxes raised to cover the Federal shortfall.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday January 15 2018, @10:59PM
Fun contrast: France had a big polemic a few years back, on whether a middle-school nurse handing a day-after pill to a minor should be required to inform her parents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @11:10PM (1 child)
As far as I know it is still 18 here in Illinois for tobacco, although there has been some proposals to increase it. Some local juristictions may also be higher. For lack of a better link here's wikipedia, looks like most of America is 18 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_age [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 16 2018, @12:07AM
It might be. I didn't exactly do an extensive (re)search, a lot of links just said 21 when looking for what the age limit of tobacco in Illinois was, and so I went with that. She is still below 18 to tho so it might matter less. But yes it could have been wrong, it probably is wrong. But then it might not matter all that much since she apparently wasnt going to smoke it anyway but getting it in other forms. So a complete side track on my part.