How will Leon County ‘accept pot in schools’? Board to consider policy on medical marijuana CD Davidson-Hiers, Tallahassee Democrat USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA 12/16/2019 How should individual public schools accommodate students who need to take medical marijuana during the school day? That’s the question the Leon County School Board will vote on next month. A proposed policy, titled “Use of Medical Marijuana by Qualified Students,” governs where and how medical marijuana may enter the schools. At least one thorny issue is unresolved: How cannabis, still illegal at the federal level, can be stored on school campuses. The short answer, according to Assistant Superintendent Alan Cox, is that it really can’t be: “We’re not set up in our schools to store it,” he told board members at a Monday “agenda review” meeting. In 2016, Florida voters OK’d a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana. The next year, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation fleshing out how the amendment would work, including language on school boards making policies to support students with a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor. Soon after that, the Florida School Board Association sent guidance to school districts in the state, saying marijuana is “a crime under federal law.” “It is important to keep in mind that, despite authorizations in Florida Statutes and in the Florida Constitution, marijuana is still illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act,” FSBA wrote. Many school districts, such as Leon County, put the topic on the back-burner. Then, this October, the Florida Department of Education sent a memo to all school district superintendents reminding them about the legal requirement. It said districts needed to adopt a marijuana policy by Dec. 31. Cox, who oversees health and wellness in the schools, told the Democrat he doesn’t expect that the board’s voting on the policy Jan. 14 will be an issue with the state. Threading the needle The school district contracts with the county health department for services that include staffing school clinics. But, as Cox explained to the board last week, the health department refuses to jeopardize its federal funding by working with marijuana. “They’re not going to touch this thing,” Cox said. Instead, a “caregiver” — in this case, a parent, guardian or designated adult — must bring the medication to a particular place in the school, give the “dose” to the student, and leave. The forms of medical marijuana the district policy allows are oils or lotions, or those that can be eaten or swallowed, such as a pill. The policy does not allow smoking marijuana, or putting it into ecigarettes used for “vaping.” Students who are 18 can take it themselves, but may not have cannabis in their possession on campus. Manatee County solved this issue by allowing students with a doctor’s order to wear “transdermal” patches on the skin that deliver the medication throughout the day, said Mitchell Teitelbaum, general counsel for the School District of Manatee County. The patches, similar to nicotine patches used by those trying to quit smoking, eliminate the need for an adult to come to the school during the day. “That is the future,” Teitelbaum said of the patches. “But there are certain concerns — we have to weigh everything.” But the Leon County draft policy — modeled after a Miami-Dade County policy posted to the Department of Education’s website — prohibits patches and anything that would continuously deliver doses of marijuana while at school. District officials still are working on an authorization form parents can fill out for students who use medicinal cannabis. Charter schools can choose to follow the board’s policy, or create their own. Officials don’t yet know how many students will take advantage of the new policy, Cox told the board; School Board member Darryl Jones said he “would find it difficult to vote” without that information. But School Board Attorney Opal McKinney-Williams reminded members that the policy is required — and soon — by the Legislature. “District staff have been trying for some time to thread the needle” for the policy’s language, she said Monday. Next, principals at each school will decide where in the building the medication can be given that “does not create a risk of disruption” or “exposure to other students,” according to the policy’s draft. “Only medication in its original container labeled with the date, the qualifying student/patient’s name, and the exact dosage and route will be allowed to be administered during school hours,” the draft reads. According to the Florida Department of Education, if the new marijuana policy jeopardizes the district’s federal funding, the district may retract it and try again. “There’s an old saying — never say never,” Cox told the board. “I’m coming up on the end of my career to get y’all to accept pot in schools.” - - - Have a comment? Contact CD Davidson- Hiers at cdavidsonh@tallahassee. com or on Twitter @DavidsonHiers.