A third-grade student who uses medical marijuana to help with his seizures inspired Colorado lawmakers to sign a bill that allows school nurses to administer the medicine to students who qualify.
The bill, known as “Quintin’s Amendment,” is named after third-grader Quintin Lovato, KDVR reported. The amendment expands on “Jack’s Law,” which allows Colorado children to take medical marijuana to school.
Quintin, 9, has three types of seizures and Tourette syndrome, the TV station reported. In January, he weaned off of drugs that made him “extremely hard” to deal with and began using a cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope.
“My new medicine makes me feel like I can really focus on baseball and school,” Quintin told lawmakers, according to the Vail Daily.
He needs three doses a day, the newspaper reported, but he sometimes has to miss his midday dose of the oil while at school because both of his parents have to work.
“If I could take my Haleigh’s Hope in the middle of the day maybe my seizures would go away,” he told the Colorado House of Representatives House Health Committee, according to the Vail Daily. “If I didn’t have seizures then I could live a more normal life like the other kids at school.”
Earlier this month, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 18-1286, “School Nurse Give Medical Marijuana at School.” The law allows school personnel to administer medical marijuana, in a non-smokeable form, to students who qualify.
In a letter Hickenlooper wrote to the Colorado House of Representatives, he said lawmakers spoke to parents whose children use medical marijuana.
“We find their reasoning and advocacy very compelling, especially that of Ms. Hannah Lovato and her son Quintin who inspired the bill,” he wrote in the letter. “Their message was overwhelmingly persuasive, and we sign this bill today with much admiration for Quintin and expect great things in the future from this impressive young man.”
The law does not require schools to administer medical marijuana to students, but it gives them the power to choose to do so. The signed law does not list what types of medical marijuana are permitted, but it does say it must be in a “non-smokeable form.”
The bill requires that the student’s parent or primary caregiver deliver the medical marijuana before the student starts school and replenish the supply when needed. It must be clearly labeled with scheduled timing, dosing and delivery instructions from a student’s physician.
Under the signed law, the medical marijuana must be placed in a locked storage container, and the student cannot handle medical marijuana on school grounds, on a school bus or at school-sponsored events.
