Colorado Legislature Passes Legislation Allowing Medical Cannabis Use in Schools

Colorado Legislature Passes Legislation Allowing Medical Cannabis Use in Schools

Colorado’s full legislature has given overwhelming approval to legislation that would allow students who are medical cannabis patients to use their medicine while at school. The vote in the House of Representatives was 56 to 9, while the vote in the Senate was unanimous, 35 to 0.

Colorado lawmakers last year passed a measure allowing school districts to create policies allowing the use of medical cannabis on school premises. However, the law didn’t require districts to allow its use, and currently just one school district in Colorado (Falcon School District 49 in El Paso County) has begun the process of enacting a medical cannabis policy.

Under this new law, if a district doesn’t enact a policy allowing medical cannabis to be used by students on school grounds, then a parent or legal guardian would be allowed to come and administer the medicine for them; schools wouldn’t be able to ban medical cannabis use outright.

House Bill 1373 now goes to Governor John Hickenlooper, who is expected to quickly sign the bill into law.