By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Some students in Illinois could soon get to use cannabis-based medicines in public schools.
Gov. Bruce Rauner will decide if kids in Illinois public schools who suffer from seizures and other serious medical conditions will get to use cannabidiol and THC-based medicines in school. Cannabidiol oil is a non-intoxicating cannabis extract.
The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved House Bill 4870 on a 50-2 vote.
Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Moline, said the plan expands Illinois’ medical marijuana program to allow parents to give their children medicine at schools. But he’s clear, the plan does not allow students to get high.
“The bill provides more regulation for a plant than we require regulation for someone taking a prescription opioid,” said Anderson, who is a firefighter/EMT.
No one at a school will be forced to handle the medicine, and local schools can create their own bans.
But because the legislation deals with marijuana-based medicine, there was some reluctance.
State Sen. Chuck Weaver, R-Peoria, was one of just two senators to vote against the bill.
“Once we start going over these lines, it’s impossible to come back,” Weaver said. “We’ve made a big stride with medical marijuana in our state. And, of course, there is talk about recreational marijuana that’s coming.”
The law is in response to a suburban Chicago girl, Ashley Surin, who’s parents had to sue her local school to be allowed to give her her medicine to manage seizures during the day.
