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Deadline Looms For School Boards To Allow Medical Marijuana In Public Schools

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Public schools across Florida must have a policy in place by the end of the year allowing students to use medical marijuana on campus, or they will risk losing some state funding. 

The 2017 law implementing medical marijuana across the state requires all school districts to have a policy defining how students can take the drug on campus. But some school districts have been slow in letting children take it at school.

Now, the state has set a December 31 deadline for districts to establish a policy, or they could risk losing state money. The state set an October 18th deadline for districts to tell the state if they already have a policy in place.

“Although the area of law is relatively new, ample time has passed for districts to adopt compliant access policies,” a memo to local school boards says.

There’s no recommended policy, but the state did share Volusia County’s as an example. It lets caregivers bring and administer medical marijuana to students on campus, but school employees can’t store the drug or help give it.

The Lake County School Board voted on the issue this week, and Marion County expects to take up the issue next month.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.