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NJ Teen Fights to Use Medical Marijuana at School

With all of the progress across the nation in legalizing or even decriminalizing medical marijuana, sometimes new problems and issues arise that were never even contemplated before legalization. According to a recent news feature from NJ.com, a teen medical marijuana patient is now fighting for her right to use medical marijuana at her school. First, it is important to note, nobody is advocating underage students be permitted to smoke marijuana on school grounds. In the case of this 16-year-old girl, we are discussing her desire to remove the ban preventing her from using cannabis oil at her school.

Her parents say their daughter, who has been diagnosed with epilepsy and autism, gets to school in the morning acting docile, paying attention to her teachers, and acting pleasant with those around her. By the time she gets off the bus after school, she is typically acting aggressively and highly irritable. The reason for her drastic change in mood and behavior is because the cannabis oil medication she uses before school typically wears off throughout the day. A school ban on the use of medical marijuana prevents her from taking her next needed dose, and she suffers as a result of lack of treatment for her serious health conditions.

On the worst days, according to her parents, she is covered with self-inflicted bruises by the end of the day from thrashing around and trying to escape from the bus. If she were taking any other medication available at a conventional pharmacy, even one containing highly addictive opioids, there would be no problem with her taking another dose throughout the day. Medical marijuana, while decriminalized, cannot be legally administered on school grounds.

Her parents have filed a lawsuit against the school board, demanding a court lift the ban and allow her to take her much-needed medication on school grounds. Meanwhile, school officials are falling back on the old argument that marijuana is illegal under federal law, as it is a controlled dangerous substance with no medical uses. This argument that marijuana has no medical uses, as our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys can explain, is a based upon decades old beliefs of those trying to schedule marijuana as a controlled dangerous substance at a higher level than most other illegal narcotics. It is not only unsupported, it is also contrary to vast amounts of peer-reviewed medical research proving the many benefits of medial cannabis.

For her particular treatment, which the family only tried as a treatment of last resort following many other conventional treatments, including powerful prescription amphetamines and benzodiazepines, which had little or no helpful effects, her mother made cannabis oil at home and gave it to their daughter one drop at a time with an eyedropper. Her doctor recommended one drop in the morning, one at lunch, one after school, and one in before bed. It is the inability to take a single drop of cannabis oil at lunch that is having awful effects on her quality of life and ability to function at school.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:
Teen demands right to use medical marijuana in N.J. school, wants ban overturned , April 28, 2015, NJ.com

More Blog Entries:
Mobile Marijuana Dispensaries Targeted by City Councils, Feds, Feb. 28, 2015, Orange County Marijuana Lawyer Blog

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