JR. HIGH NOT HIGH ON MED POT PROJECT

SANTA CRUZ -- School officials are considering whether to snuff out a
13-year-old girls' science project that examines medical uses for marijuana.

The junior high school student was allowed to present her report to
classmates Thursday, but afterward school officials confiscated her props,
including a marijuana-laced muffin and a spray bottle of pot- steeped
rubbing alcohol.

The girl's father, Joe Morris, said Mission Hill Junior High officials gave
initial clearance for the project and should have said something earlier if
they objected.

"Don't children have constitutional rights?" Morris said. "In a way, it's
censorship and that's not acceptable."

But he said he might have erred in letting his daughter take the props to
school.

"I should have used better judgment," he said, noting he was grateful the
school returned the props to him, rather than calling law enforcement.

Morris said his daughter became interested in the subject because her aunt
is a caregiver for a woman who uses marijuana as a medicine. The girl
didn't advocate marijuana use, he said, but instead researched the project
with library books and patient surveys and analyzed and graphed her findings.

School officials haven't yet decided if the girl can display her "Mary Jane
for Pain" project this week when judges from UC Santa Cruz and the
NASA/Ames Research Lab award prizes.

"I'm going to have to take a look at the science to see if it fits the
criteria," Principal Cathy Stefanki-Iglesias said. "I'm not so convinced it
does at the moment."

Valerie Corral, executive director of a group that provides medical
marijuana, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel the project was a good one but it
was inappropriate to let the girl take the prescriptive pot to school.