Cannabis Medicine at School: Here We Go Again

Another boy has recently been suspended from school in Colorado. Why? Because the kid carried with him the drug he needs to fight against his seizures. This, of course, is not the crime. The crime, in fact, is that it was a cannabis-based drug. While we are all standing here waiting for Colorado to find a solution to this insane contradiction (the fact that kids cannot bring medical marijuana at school, even if they can use it), can we please once again consider the kind of message we are sending to the kids of this generation, who are very aware that marijuana exists—it is everywhere around them, everyone talks about it, and it is also constantly in the media.

As I mentioned before in one of my posts, I am certainly not suggesting we should allow kids to access a website that sells pot or cannabis seeds, and let them purchase whatever product they want to try. But there is a big difference between allowing kids to smoke pot at school and giving them the chance to explore a cultural product—yes, cannabis is a cultural product—without being afraid. Are we absolutely sure that the creation of a system of terror, according to which a sick kid get suspended from school because his mother put the medical cannabis he needs in his lunch box, is going to solve the problem? And what is “the problem” anyway?

If our purpose is to make sure kids do not smoke pot before they turn 21, hiding the drug as if it was some kind of mysterious object isn’t really the best solution. This tactic, in fact, produces a combination of curiosity and ignorance, which is arguably the worst mix on earth. A kid who is aware of the existence of marijuana, and every kid today is aware of it, will naturally be curious about it. Have you ever tried to let your child taste a tiny sip of wine? The kid, who usually cannot wait to try, 10 times out of 10 ends up saying something like “oh my God, that’s disgusting, it’s sour, horrible.” What do you think would happen if we allowed our kids to explore what marijuana is? We are not exactly talking about candies and lollipops, and I am pretty sure the vast majority of kids would think cannabis “smells very bad,” just like wine “tastes very bad.”

Before running towards the usual “let’s save our children from the world” rhetoric, why don’t we reconsider what “the world” has become?