CANNABIZ - MEDICAL MARIJUANA NEWS OF THE WEEK

Wising up

If the city's larger school districts have learned one thing from the
tale of Shan Moore's 16-year-old son - a medical marijuana patient
and student in Harrison School District 2 who was allowed, then
disallowed, then again allowed to medicate outside of school and
return to class - it's that simple is best.

"If for any reason at that school you are found to be using, that
would be against district policy," says Elaine Naleski, director of
communications for Colorado Springs School District 11. "We can't
tell you what you can do off district property, but if you are
impaired or if you are found to be a user then ... you would not be
able to do that."

Academy School District 20's Nanette Anderson has a slightly different take.

"We haven't had that occur at our schools, but what I'm hearing from
our attorney is that we probably wouldn't count that as an infraction
under our substance abuse policy," she says, adding: "If
[administrators] see a student that they think is under the
influence, they wouldn't try to determine first whether it was a
medical marijuana issue; they would try to determine if that student
needs to be cared for or picked up by an adult."

Meanwhile, the area's smallest school district reports that it
actually has had a situation similar to D-2's. Tim Miller, spokesman
for Manitou Springs School District 14, says an 18-year-old student
who made it known that he was an MMJ patient was told he could not
medicate on school property. In general, Miller says: "If you don't
know, then you don't know."

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports that
as of June 30, 2010, the state was home to 24 patients under the age of 18.

Bud shake

* John Leavitt, a spokesman for the city, says City Council will
consider an MMJ licensing ordinance at its March 8 meeting. The
ordinance will be available for public review March 3, within the
Council agenda available at springsgov.com.

* As we originally reported last year, Rep. Claire Levy, a Boulder
Democrat, has followed through with her plans to introduce a bill
that limits the amount of THC present in a driver's blood. Colorado
Springs Rep. Mark Waller is a co-sponsor of House Bill 1261, which
states that no more than five nanograms of THC can be present in a
driver's blood within two hours of being pulled over. A poll on our
website shows readers support the measure 54 to 46 percent.

* Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems has announced it's acquired the
patent rights to produce an MMJ patch called Tetracan and plans to
distribute the patch in centers throughout California and Colorado
later this year.