LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP: School board approves new policy on medical marijuana

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
LAWRENCE — A new policy and companion regulations that sets out how marijuana can be administered to a student for medicinal — not recreational — purposes gained the Lawrence Township Board of Education’s approval Wednesday night.
The state-mandated policy allows for medical marijuana to be given to a student — for whom it has been prescribed by a physician — at school, aboard a school bus or while attending a school-sponsored event. It is administered by a designated primary caregiver.
Medical marijuana must be prescribed by the student’s physician, and must be administered by the student’s primary caregiver — a parent or legal guardian. Both the student-patient and the primary caregiver must have been issued a “registry identification card” by the state Department of Health.
The primary caregiver can be a parent or someone else who is at least 18 years old, and who has registered with the state Department of Health and has passed a criminal background check. The primary caregiver must be a New Jersey resident.
The parent must provide school district officials with copies of the state Department of Health registry identification cards and the physician’s order or prescription that indicates the dosage and how it is to be given to the student-patient.
Once the paperwork has been reviewed and approved, the school principal will let the parent or primary caregiver know the details as to how it may be administered — the location, the school staff member to whom the primary caregiver should report and the time that it can be given to the student-patient.
The medical marijuana cannot be given to the student by smoking or other form of inhalation, and must be kept in the possession of the primary caregiver at all times. At no time may the student-patient have the medical marijuana in his or her possession — except when it is being administered to him or her by the primary caregiver.