S<\/span>tone-faced, flanked by police officers and facing a brace of television cameras and a crowd of parents, San Francisco public school officials on Tuesday announced that students at a middle school had been sickened with a substance \u2014 which turned out to be medical marijuana products.<\/p>\n Police and ambulances had responded to a call for help from James Lick Middle School, where ten middle schoolers were \u201chospitalized with non-life threatening conditions,\u201d according to the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the time of the press conference<\/a>, it was only known that the students had all ingested some mysterious \u201csubstance.\u201d First responders taking note of the kids\u2019 symptoms probably had an inkling, but it would be another day before the truth about substance\u2019s cannabis composure would emerge.<\/p>\n At least 10 San Francisco students were sickened Tuesday after ingesting an unknown substance at James Lick Middle School @sfchronicle<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/0uGSG6TtyZ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7SWEkzn9D2<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jessica Christian (@jachristian) February 13, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Officials are treating this as a very big deal. Parents described the experience as \u201ctraumatizing\u201d to their children, in comments\u00a0to the Chronicle<\/a>, and school officials are promising action. The offending prankster is still unidentified, and it\u2019s not clear where or from whom he or she obtained the edibles in question.<\/p>\n \u201cThis terrible incident is a reminder that we need to not only educate our students appropriately \u2014 and SFUSD will make this a priority \u2014 but also those who make these products accessible to our youth under 21,\u201d Schoolboard President Hydra Mendoza told the newspaper.<\/p>\n In a broader context, Mendoza\u2019s rhetoric is exaggerated. While most scientists and cannabis advocates agree that unmetered, unsupervised doses of THC are not good for a developing brain or a welcome addition to a school environment, medical cannabis is<\/em> in schools, at the order of judges<\/a>. While these medical marijuana child patients are consuming cannabis knowingly and with expert supervision \u2014 unlike the ten children in San Francisco, there still is space for medical marijuana on the schoolyard.<\/p>\n In fact, around the same time on Tuesday that San Francisco officials were holding their press conference, one California state senator announced that he had introduced a bill<\/a> to guarantee children with the right to access their medical marijuana at school. State Senator Jerry Hill\u2019s SB 1127 would give school districts the choice to adopt a rule allowing parents to come administer medical marijuana to their child during the school day.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the James Lick incident highlighted a growing issue, one that will not go away anytime soon in states that have legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n Kids will occasionally get their hands on the stuff \u2014 just as they did before legalization. So what can be done?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Legalization\u2019s sales pitch leaned heavily on the promise that regulated and taxed cannabis would stay away from California\u2019s youth. (As has been said before, the promise \u201cWhile Protecting Children\u201d was literally part of the legalization campaign committee\u2019s official name<\/a>.) Drug dealers don\u2019t card, the argument went \u2014 but dispensary workers do.<\/p>\n Yet in hindsight, legalization\u2019s self-assured promise might have been a bad idea. Nobody can guarantee that kids will never bring cannabis edibles to school and share them with friends and enemies. This was true before California\u2019s legalization era began on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n As per the Chronicle, authorities confiscated at the school a package bearing the words \u201cmedical marijuana,\u201d a concept that\u2019s been legal in California for 20 years. Those keeping score at home will note that THC limits in edibles products in California are now lower than ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Chronicle warned that \u201cwith the Jan. 1 legalization of recreational marijuana sales to adults upping the accessibility of baked cannabis confections and candy, it could easily happen again.\u201d One parent told the paper, \u201cTo my mind, what happened is like a portent of what\u2019s going to happen more and more in schools in California and other states that are making marijuana more accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n But the newspaper did not note that high THC edibles have been available in San Francisco over the counter<\/a> for most of this millennium, and this is the first time this has happened.<\/p>\n Plus, neither Washington<\/a> nor Colorado<\/a> saw increases in youth use after commercial sales of legal recreational cannabis began in those states in 2014.<\/p>\n In an attempt to stop children from accessing cannabis, some officials are considering keeping the price and taxes on cannabis high, so remains difficult to access.<\/p>\n On Feb. 13, across the bay from San Francisco, Berkeley elected officials weighed whether to cut the city\u2019s tax on recreational cannabis. The city currently levies marijuana sales at 10 percent. Added to state-mandated sales, excise and cultivation taxes, eighths of marijuana cost $75 over-the-counter in Berkeley \u2014 exorbitant prices that, some experts contend, helps keep the black market in business.<\/p>\n But high taxes are credited with keeping youths away from cigarettes and a tax on beverages with added sugar \u2014 the soda tax \u2014 is promised to help cut childhood obesity. Keeping taxes on cannabis similarly high \u201cwill discourage teen use,\u201d as the authors of an op-ed published in Berkeleyside<\/a> ahead of the vote argued.<\/p>\n \u201c[W]e know that legalization will only make it easier for those under 21 to access it,\u201d wrote public-health advocate Holly Scheider and condom-manufacturer David Mayer. \u201cThe higher tax rate will have the most impact on youth who are price sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n In presenting their argument, Scheider and Mayer presented no data to support their suppositions that legalization increases youth access, or that expensive over-the-counter cannabis keeps it away from kids. This is probably because \u2014 as of yet \u2014 there isn\u2019t any.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> what can officials do to keep kids from consuming cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Officials Struggle to Keep Cannabis Away from Kids<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 13, middle school students in San Francisco unknowingly consumed medical marijuana products and had to receive medical attention. Officials said legalization is to blame, but the evidence isn\u2019t quite clear. Stone-faced, flanked by police officers and facing a brace of television cameras and a crowd of parents, SanContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,111,3356,901],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23747,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23746\/revisions\/23747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Officials Struggle to Keep Cannabis Away from Kids<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"