LIVE OAK, Fla. (WTXL) - Some students in Suwannee County will be allowed to use medical marijuana on campus when school starts back up this fall.
Tuesday night, the Suwannee County School Board voted unanimously to put a new medical marijuana policy in place.
"I have some personal ideas and thoughts, but that's not relative because we have to comply with the state law. This is now the law," said Jerry Taylor.
Taylor is the Suwannee County School Board Chairman and the President-Elect of the Florida School Boards Association. Taylor says he does not know of any students requesting to use medical marijuana at school.
This new policy is put in place simply to comply with state legislation requiring school districts create guidelines allowing the use of legal medical marijuana on campus.
Under this new policy, school personnel will not be allowed to dispense medical marijuana. A parent or guardian has to bring it to the school, give it to the student themselves and then immediately take the drug off school grounds. The district will provide access to a place at school where the parent or guardian is allowed to administer medical marijuana.
This new policy applies to students only, not employees.
Families will have to provide proof of a prescription and it does not include smoke-able medical marijuana.
"Personally I hope we never come to that point, because how do you contain that?" said Taylor. "How do you deal with the smoke? Where do you go, where do you administer that? To me, it just opens up another whole can of worms. As it is now, it has to be a pill form, tablet; something that's consumable."
The new policy also says that medical marijuana cannot be administered on a school bus or at a school sponsored event. The policy goes into effect for the upcoming school year.
