The Washington
State Senate has passed a bill requiring school districts to allow parents to administer
CBD infused products on public school grounds, on buses and at school sanctioned
events. Following a 77-19 vote in the Washington House, the bill passed easily
in the Senate with a vote of 41-4 and is now headed back to the House for final
approval. Students receiving the nonsmokable cannabidiol must be registered in
the state medical cannabis database and only their parents are permitted to administer
the CBD rich products, a provision meant to protect school district employees
from issues with the Federal Government. Additionally, portions of the bill
requires a review of the program if the federal Government does threaten school
funding.
The prime
sponsor of the bill for the third year, Representative Brian Blake, D Aberdeen
commented “We want to give the school system, the K-12 system, some comfort
because they said they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think
there was some objections in the Republican caucus about the word marijuana in
the title. think it freaked people out.”
(From Rep Brian Blake
quote to Spokesman
Review)
Despite
recent advances in Cannabidiol public policy and science, thirty three states
and D.C. have full plant medical cannabis systems, with ~17 more having high
CBD laws, the FDA famously approved the first oral CBD spray in 2018 and the
University of Alabama Birmingham recently found CBD to be an effective
treatment for seizure disorders, school districts around the country still struggle
at the intersection of local, state and Federal cannabis laws. Remarkably, if
passed Washington would only be the fifth
state to require school districts statewide to allow parents to administer
medical cannabis at schools.