{"id":257,"date":"2016-12-22T00:57:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T05:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=257"},"modified":"2016-12-22T02:07:01","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T07:07:01","slug":"toms-river-boe-introduces-student-medical-marijuana-allowance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2016\/12\/toms-river-boe-introduces-student-medical-marijuana-allowance\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River BOE Introduces Student Medical Marijuana Allowance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marijuana

Marijuana (Photo: Katheirne Hitt\/Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

A policy to allow the administration of medical marijuana to students in the Toms River Regional school district was introduced on first reading by the Board of Education Wednesday night, but not without controversy.<\/p>\n

Before the board took a vote on the measure, which would allow parents to administer medical marijuana to students on school grounds, on buses and at school-sponsored events, a South Toms River resident took issue with a prior discussion of the policy at a board committee meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical marijuana is always a last resort for children and teenagers, which means when all else has failed to keep the patient stable, this can be used,\u201d said Krista Whittaker, who felt she was \u201cbelittled\u201d by the board at the policy meeting where the issue was discussed. \u201cCan you imagine watching your child suffer for over a year, and then be told this is their last option? You worry about, \u2018what if people think my child is a pot head?\u2019 What if is not covered by insurance?'\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittaker said Board President\u00a0Robert Onofrietti joked about the issue during the meeting \u2013 a charge\u00a0Onofrietti denied, saying he asked a serious question on edible marijuana that led to a chuckle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not laugh,\u201d said\u00a0Onofrietti. \u201cI take offense to the fact that you\u2019re going to come up here and say anyone on this board is belittling our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the board passed the policy, which calls for both the student and parent to be authorized to take and administer the drug.\u00a0Parents wishing to administer marijuana to their children would be required to notify the school principal, who would consult with the school nurse, physician and superintendent before providing written approval with the parameters under which the substance would be used.\u00a0Marijuana would be able to be administered on school grounds, on a school bus or during school-sponsored activities. The policy calls a parent to remain in possession of the drug except when physically administering it to their child.<\/p>\n

The board must take a second vote on the policy before it is formally adopted. The policy is in response to a state law passed last year\u00a0that requires\u00a0districts to enact policies that\u00a0allow the administration of medical marijuana to students.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A policy to allow the administration of medical marijuana to students in the Toms River Regional school district was introduced on first reading by the Board of Education Wednesday night, but not without controversy. Before the board took a vote on the measure, which would allow parents to administer medical marijuana to students on school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[61,60,59,11,64],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-toms-river-schools","tag-marijuana","tag-marijuana-in-schools","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-toms-river-nj-news","tag-toms-river-regional-schools"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/4420604477_44bf695c1c_o.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}