(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/03/2023) Reps. Jimmie Wilson Jr. (D-Ypsilanti) and Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) are re-introducing "Jayden's Law," a bill package allowing access to medical marijuana for registered pediatric patients on school campuses.
Since 2008, medical marijuana has been allowed for minors who are registered pediatric patients, but these patients cannot receive their products while on school grounds or during school events.
Currently, a child registered as a patient requiring medical marijuana must be checked out of school and moved 1,000 feet away by their parent or guardian before they can receive any marijuana products. The student is then taken back to school and signed back in, where they can return to class.
Wilson said the process not only leads to the delay of administering prescriptions, which he said comes with an unnecessary risk, but can also cause students to miss class instruction time and extracurriculars, feel stigma from peers and faculty, and create an added burden on their parents and guardians.
Wilson said he first learned about this through advocate and pediatric patient Jayden Carter and his mother, Amie Carter.
"Jayden has experienced so much and learned that medical marijuana worked for him, but still struggled to receive it while attending school," Wilson said. "He came to Lansing to ask us to fix it, so we are doing just that, for him and all of Michigan's medical marijuana pediatric patients."
The bill package, introduced on Sept. 28 and referred to the House Regulatory Reform Committee, is modeled after a similar "Ashley's Law" in Illinois, which was passed in 2018.
Michigan's version of the legislation was previously introduced in 2021 by former Rep. Alex Garza, and in 2019 by Rep. Kara Hope (D-Lansing).
The reintroductions, HB 5063 and HB 5064, require both public and nonpublic schools to adopt reasonable guidelines for administering medical marijuana, including the ability to designate specific staff for supervision.
Wegela's HB 5063 amends the school code to allow marijuana to be administered by a qualified guardian or designated staff member on school premises, on a school bus, or at school-sponsored activities where the use of the product is not prohibited.
Licensed staff members could include licensed registered professional nurses, school administrators, teachers, teachers' assistants, and bus drivers.
The bill also prohibits discrimination against a student attending school solely because they require a marijuana product.
It only applies to non-smokable medical marijuana and requires that a written treatment plan be provided by a parent or guardian, along with proof of a student's medical card each year.
"As a former classroom educator, I know firsthand the negative impact that missed classroom instruction time can have on a student's success," Wegela said. "Jayden's Law will allow students to access their approved medical marijuana products while helping them maintain classroom and extra-curricular success and allow students and their families to have the same dignity as everyone else."
Wilson's HB 5064 makes accompanying amendments to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act.
