A societal change in sensibilities needed w/ regard to cannabis use?

Learning about a lawsuit pending against a northwest suburban school district brings up beliefs with regards to marijuana that make me question the line of logic followed by those who seriously talk about “Mak(ing) America Great Again.”

For I have no doubt that many of those who follow the Donald Trump mantra are among those who are mocking a lawsuit against Schaumburg School District 54 (and the state of Illinois) in which parents are upset school officials won’t permit their 11-year-old daughter to use the marijuana prescribed for her by a doctor.

THE GIRL IN question suffers from leukemia, and chemotherapy treatment resulted in the girl suffering from epileptic seizures.

Which is what led a doctor to prescribe the drug that some people of an ideological bent are determined to think of as some sort of “hippie freak” drug leading our society all astray.

In this case, the girl is to receive her cannabis treatment through a patch on her foot. When the patch’s dose of THC is inadequate to control her seizures, she gets cannabis oil drops containing THC on her tongue or her wrists.

Except that school officials, citing Illinois law, say they can’t administer such a drug to her, even if she has a medical prescription. I suspect it’s like many other regulations concerning distribution of medication to students on school grounds – school officials most likely don’t want to be bothered.

SO THE END result, according to the Chicago Tribune, is that there are times when the girl in question is incapable of attending class. The lawsuit contends that if something doesn’t change in the school district’s attitude, she won’t be able to continue her education.

A drop-out, at age 11! Not a pretty image.

Which the parents contend in their lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, puts the state in violation of laws where children are required to attend school through their teenage years.

So what should we do? Just what should we do!

READING THE ANONYMOUS types who like to express themselves on the Internet on any issue, regardless of whether they have anything sensible to say or not, I stumbled onto too many people who want to write off this case as another frivolous lawsuit.

Parents reckless enough to want their child to get a jolt of THC – the substance in marijuana that creates the high sensation that some people find rather pleasing (or mind-deadening).

Personally, I think it’s the latter, and a part of me doesn’t understand recreational use of the drug for that reason. I always want to be in full control of my faculties.

But this has nothing to do with recreational use. It’s about a medical use, even though I know some people’s political leanings make them want to believe there is no such use as a medical use for marijuana.

THEY’RE THE ONES who want to throw up obstacles toward the drug’s use for legitimate relief. They’re the ones who want to have the authority to ignore a doctor’s prescription.

I suppose that in their own warped minds, they want to believe that allowing use of these THC-laced patches or drops somehow sets a precedent for teenagers at the high school to be able to go “smokin’ in the boy’s room” (remember Brownsville Station?) in between classes.

Which really is nothing more than putting politics ahead of medicine. Ideology ahead of sense! If this is the idea of making America “great” again, then it truly comes across as nonsensical.

Here’s hoping the federal courts issue the injunction that would allow a school employee to store the medication on school property (in ways so that others can’t get to it for their own personal use). And that the appeals courts don’t feel the need to meddle on the issue.

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